Hooked the Battery Charger up backwards,

what did I toast? Had a friend hook up the charger on the '76 KZ900B and I did not check it before plugging it in.
I burnt a wire or two including a ground. The starter no longer works with the key on but it does work with the key off now. The bike still kick starts and runs with the key on and everything else seems to work normally.

Any ideas?

Did you do the 3 stooges slap on your buddy? At least it runs. Does your charging system work? No telling how far up the harness the damage went.

reversed polarity,check fuses

Kawickrice wrote:

Did you do the 3 stooges slap on your buddy? At least it runs. Does your charging system work? No telling how far up the harness the damage went.

I traced it and replaced the overheated ground but one other wire was overheated going into the plug near the battery ( It was popping my fuse that I added between the battery and main power wire) so I cut it and now it seems it doesn't have enough charge to run while off the charger. I assume the ten year old battery is toast. Would a dead cell battery cause it to be unable to rev and run smoothly off the charger?

Jimbo302 wrote:

Kawickrice wrote:

Did you do the 3 stooges slap on your buddy? At least it runs. Does your charging system work? No telling how far up the harness the damage went.

I traced it and replaced the overheated ground but one other wire was overheated going into the plug near the battery ( It was popping my fuse that I added between the battery and main power wire) so I cut it and now it seems it doesn't have enough charge to run while off the charger. I assume the ten year old battery is toast. Would a dead cell battery cause it to be unable to rev and run smoothly off the charger?

If it got to the regulator/rectifier and the battery is toast to boot it probably will not run worth a damn if it runs at all.

It runs great with the charger hooked up, poorly with it unhooked. Does that tell me what I have burnt up?




Kawickrice wrote:

Jimbo302 wrote:

Kawickrice wrote:

Did you do the 3 stooges slap on your buddy? At least it runs. Does your charging system work? No telling how far up the harness the damage went.

I traced it and replaced the overheated ground but one other wire was overheated going into the plug near the battery ( It was popping my fuse that I added between the battery and main power wire) so I cut it and now it seems it doesn't have enough charge to run while off the charger. I assume the ten year old battery is toast. Would a dead cell battery cause it to be unable to rev and run smoothly off the charger?

If it got to the regulator/rectifier and the battery is toast to boot it probably will not run worth a damn if it runs at all.

Jimbo302 wrote:

It runs great with the charger hooked up, poorly with it unhooked. Does that tell me what I have burnt up?




Kawickrice wrote:

Jimbo302 wrote:

Kawickrice wrote:

Did you do the 3 stooges slap on your buddy? At least it runs. Does your charging system work? No telling how far up the harness the damage went.

I traced it and replaced the overheated ground but one other wire was overheated going into the plug near the battery ( It was popping my fuse that I added between the battery and main power wire) so I cut it and now it seems it doesn't have enough charge to run while off the charger. I assume the ten year old battery is toast. Would a dead cell battery cause it to be unable to rev and run smoothly off the charger?

If it got to the regulator/rectifier and the battery is toast to boot it probably will not run worth a damn if it runs at all.

The first thing to do is get a good battery without that you are wasting your time.
Once you get a good battery you can start to diagnose what got trashed. If your ground wire burnt up you may want to trace it out in case it is melted up stream and involved other wires. Check for shorts and burnt fuses. Let us know how it turns out.

Quote
"I assume the ten year old battery is toast".


Wow. a 10 year old battery. Mine only last 3 or 40 years and I think thats good. Time to get a new one and start again at the beginning.

Well the bike sat in a shed for a decade so it's probably a little older than that. Its actually been working decent so far this year, lol.

JR wrote:

Quote
"I assume the ten year old battery is toast".


Wow. a 10 year old battery. Mine only last 3 or 40 years and I think thats good. Time to get a new one and start again at the beginning.

Your battery is probably shot especially after the incident.
Yes, even with a good charging system the bike may run poorly on a dead battery, especially if you have a bad cell. That said, I wouldn't run it until you put an eye on the harness thoroughly. Like was said, if you're running it and a bare spot of melted insulation shorts your close call could get too close real quick.

10 year old battery is a mummy. One of the undead. It's evil get rid of it. Next check to see of you are charging. measure your running voltage at the battery. If not then your reg/rec has also gone to the choir immortal (dead). Inspect that harness. Any burnt spots needs splitting and investigation. No sense replacing things and thinking everything is ok only to have it smoke and burn on ya down the road. It's also a good time to clean the connections. Your poor old bike will love you for it. I would replace the fuses anyway. You could do it right and switch over to blade fuses. Pretty cheap really. There is a tutorial somewhere around here if you search. GLuck!

Thanks for the good info.