Made a Rookie Mistake...Fried Electrical System?

Long story short, was re-diagnosing a starting issue I had (and had posted earlier here on the forums) and in my haste made a very silly/rookie mistake - I bridged the two terminals on the starter solenoid....while the battery cables were connected. It was a few seconds before I realized my mistake, and now I'm getting nothing after properly disconnected the battery cables from the solenoid - starter that used to crank with this trick doesn't anymore.

My question is, what is the extend of the damage I could have done to the electrical system? Did I fry the starter? Tested voltage of the battery - sitting around ~10V; is the battery done or can I charge it back to health? It *was* a brand new battery not 2 weeks old...really kicking myself for this one!

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, this is a lesson learned that I soon won't forget!

Chris

No pfp, no responde,

I would think a fuse would blow before much if any damage would occur, but I'm no expert on the subject either.
Have you checked the fuses?

:whistle:

A battery at 10v is deeply discharged. Suggest you charge it slowly on a charger that is rated at no more than 2 Amps. Then have it load tested.

We agree with daveo that there's unlikely to be any permanent damage to the bike.

If it's a flooded wet cell battery, make sure to keep it topped up with distilled water while charging. Once charged & tested, try it in the bike. Flooded wet cell batteries are quite tolerant of being deeply discharged provided they are not left in that state for long.

If it's an AGM (commonly called maintenance-free) battery it might recover, might not. If it does recover, most likely it's life and CCA will have been reduced. AGM's do not tolerate deep discharge well.

If it's a Li-Ion battery, don't know. We have no personal experience.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

What type of battery is it? Did you prep it & check its voltage before installing it on the motorcycle?

It usually helps to say what motorcycle it is.

10v isn't enough charge to test anything. Properly charge the battery before going any further. Ed

Gentlemen, thank you for the responses!

Back story is the battery was brand new and held around 12.5v while attempting to start the bike (under load) so I knew the battery was okay.

The bike is an '81 KZ550 LTD C2 - checked all the fuses after my mistake with a test light and they're all intact. Have the battery on a trickle charger at the moment and will leave it there for about 10 hours to see if it recovers. From what you guys are saying it looks like there shouldn't be any permanent damage to any other parts of the electrical system which was my main concern..if it's just a deeply discharged battery than is shouldn't be a big deal. Will update once the battery is fully charged and load tested and hopefully I'll be back to where I started at least haha...I'll see if I can leave a link to my other thread on what's going on with my no start issue...before I made this mistake.

Thanks again to everyone who responded, this forum is an unparalleled wealth of knowledge!

Chris

slmjim+Z1BEBE wrote:
If it's a Li-Ion battery, don't know. We have no personal experience.

A good Li-Ion battery has a anti deep discharge protection logic board but needs an special charger/refresher.

Jumping the starter solenoid terminals can't possibly damage anything. When you push the start button, the solenoid shorts the two connections, so how in the world can shorting them manually possibly fry anything? A 10v battery is dead as they come. Good luck, hopefully a charge will bring it back to 12+ volts.