Page 13 - JUG Times April 2023
P. 13
Batteries and Jump Starting your motorcycle
Check to see if the battery is charged. A smart charger will tell you when
the battery is fully charged. For other batteries, perform a voltage test.
Disconnect the battery terminals from the charger. Then us the leads of a
multimeter and put the black lead into the COM slot, and the red lead into the V
slot.
Turn the multimeter onto the 20V DC section of the scale. With the bike
completely off, touch the black lead to the negative post of the battery
and the red lead to the positive post. Then record the voltage.
If the voltage measured 12.73 volts or better, then your battery is
charged and ready to go. Anything between 12.06 volts and 12.62 volts
means you battery needs to be charged for longer. Anything less than
12.06 volts and your battery might be ruined, but you can try charging it
more.
Bike to Bike jump starting.
Connect the red clamp to the positive terminal of the dead bike's battery.
Ensure that the clamp is not touching any metal. The positive terminal
will be marked with a + sign and may be red.
>>Metal doesn’t just mean parts of either vehicle. It means all metal. Rings,
necklaces, hand tools and everything metal.
Connect the black clamp to the frame of the dead motorbike.
>>> The reason the black clamp is being connected to the frame and not the
battery is because connecting it to the battery could destroy the battery.
Attach the other red clamp to the positive terminal of the working
battery. Again, make sure that the clamp doesn’t come into contact with
anything made of metal. Double-check that you are connecting positive to
positive before connecting the clamp.
Link the black clamp to the negative terminal of the working motorcycle’s
battery. Be careful and make sure that the black clamp doesn’t make contact
with the red clamp while doing this step. You should also make sure the other
black clamp is connected to the bike’s frame and not the battery before
attaching it to the other bike.
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