"Pop" all dead.

All stock '85 XJ700N. Put the key in this morning, hit the start button and got a loud "pop" and all lights, etc are dead. Sounded like a small fire cracker or 22 pistol--sure scared the daylights out of my poor old dog! So I jumped on my faithful Honda Rebel and came to work. I hope this is just a fuse, but I've never heard a fuse pop like that. The bike is stock, stays on a battery tender, and I've never had any electrical issues. Electrical issues are not my strong suit, so any suggestions, no matter how simple, will be appreciated. The battery is fairly new and it has always cranked and started easily--until today.

 

Start by checking the fuses. The main on yours is a glass fuse, and those can make noise when they blow.
The big thing to do if you find a blown fuse is to then find out why it blew.
Check that the battery terminals are tight, and the terminals to the starter and starter solenoid. Those will make an audible arc if current has to jump a gap, and that can cause the main fuse to blow.

 

Thanks. it will probably be next week before I can devote a lot of time to finding the problem. Family reunion this weekend. I'll have to find the starter solenoid.

 

The "pop" could also have been the moment something shorts to ground.

Of course the fuse would pop shortly thereafter. If it's the main it would explain why nothing else would work. Also if the main fuse pops it narrows things down

 

A meter is a must.

I'd start at the battery, just in case there's some manufacturing defect. Make sure it's got 12V or so.

Check the connections to the battery. If it was replaced recently, maybe the main 12V or ground connections wasn't installed correctly or tightened completely. Check the other end of the ground cable as well, where it connects to the engine.

Certainly, the main fuse and other fuses should be checked. If the original fuse box, that itself is a likely cause of problems... you might find scorch marks on the fuse clips.

 

Still have not had time to look at the bike, but thanks for the suggestions. I will be back from the family reunion late Sunday. I was trying to remember what could have happened since the last time I rode the bike and I remembered that I installed flexible plastic covers over the plug wires and pushed them all the way up to the coils. Maybe I accidentally pushed some wire against the frame and grounded it. Any way, that’s the first place I am going to look.

 

I finally got time to look at the bike today. Took off the seat to check the main fuse and all of the caps were off the battery!! It is a vented Interstate battery so I guess I left them off—hard to believe but I can’t come up with a better answer. The battery was bone dry, so I have filled it with distilled water an it is charging at this time. Two of the caps are missing so I will have to come up with something to use as a plug unless Interstate happens to have an old battery. In In any case, the 30 amp main fuse tests good, so next I am going to check the fuses under the speedometer and tach. Would a dry battery cause a problem other than simply not turning the engine over?

 

All the fuses check out good. After about an hour on a trickle charger I got lights but not enough energy to turn over the engine. I’ll give it a day or so and try again. If no go, I will try jumping it and if that works I’ll replace the fairly new battery that I must have killed. The pop is still a puzzle.

 

Just a guess here but I suspect the loud pop was the caps being blown off - time for a new battery.

 

You could be right if there was gas built up inside the battery and ignited when I hit the starter button. But why would a new battery evaporate all its water in about 3 months? Could a trickle charger do that? Doesn’t seem to be a problem for the other 3 bikes on a trickle charger.

 

Global warming?

 

Darn those liberals!!

 

It doesn't seem like the battery tender should do that unless it wasn't operating properly, and if you are using the same one on all 3 bikes you should be able to rule that out. That said, it would be time to check the charging system on the bike, perhaps it is overcharging slightly contributing to the loss of water.

I put an AGM battery in my Seca 5 years ago after getting tired of the wet cell batteries and it has performed wonderfully.

 

I have a separate charger for each bike. I am beginning a bad charger, just not sure how to check it out.

 

^^^+1 Rooster53 AMG battery is mucho better. If you boiled your battery time to replace , you may not ever get it to fully charge now.

 

Funny, my wife's bike went through same thing about a day after you posted. Went to start, pop noise and dead. Turned out battery was bad, I put an AGM battery in. Have those in other bikes and have been extremely happy with them. I agree your old battery is most likely toast now. Sounds like the battery maintainer went south on you, hard to test without a meter but my moms maintainer went south on her Jeep and destroyed the battery as well.

 

I'm going to test it tonight, but it was a cheap battery maintainer I picked up at Tractor Supply. Got two of them and this is the first issue I have had. Probably replace them with Battery Tender, Jr's. The Tractor Supply unit is supposed to charge at 3/4 amps, but I've lost any instructions that came with it so I don't know if it is the "floating" type or not. The Battery Tender Jr. is a floating charger and is supposed to cut off when it senses that the batter is fully charged. Probably to prevent what just happened to me.

 

I have two Battery tender units, one has been on a boat battery for a few years and the other gets moved around bikes. No issues with them. I maintain a couple of bikes for a friend in exchange for winter storage space, total of four Battery Tender maintainers all winter for the last four years and no issues there either. Some other Forum members have reported good results with the Harbor freight ones but I cannot speak to that. Just make sure the maintainer is compatible with the type of battery and you should be good.

 

I have a cheap harbor freight battery maintainer. Does the job.

I bought the deluxe model rather than the cheapest they had. Think I paid like $17-20. Nothing but the best for my bike....

 

Well, all’s well that ends well! The battery took a full charge and the bike fired off easily, so I am back in business. The charger is putting out about 13 volts at about .72 amps so it seems to be ok. At about 2500 RPM the alternator is putting out about 13.7 volts. This is an Interstate acid lead battery so I am guessing that staying on the trickle charger all the time hastens the evaporation and I will have to keep a closer eye on the fluid level. Lesson learned.