Accidently touched positive battery to frame - sparks

bikerboy7

Joined
Jul 12, 2014
Messages
75
Location
uk
Bike
st1100 + sidecar
Accidently touched positive battery to frame - sparks, have I done any damage. All fuses ok.
 
be more specific about what made contact.

If you just touched the battery positive terminal to the frame while moving the battery around, then that didn't flow any current through the bike electricals, and there's nothing that could have been damaged.

If you touched a wire or connection that is downstream from the fuse panel to the frame, then hopefully the fuses would have done their job and blown. Or, if the contact was brief enough it may not have been an issue. No way to give a reliable answer, you'll just have to check things for yourself and see if anything seems odd.
 
As Dwalby said you might have dodged a bullet here. Just thank your lucky stars you don't have a bike full of ECM modules and canbus systems etc, etc, etc. If you did it would be real expensive,
 
Thanks for the quick replies. I was tightening the positive terminal with a 10mm spanner and it touched my sidecar mounting strut which is connected to the frame just above the battery box. Will check the neutral light tomorrow.
 
bikerboy7 said:
Thanks for the quick replies. I was tightening the positive terminal with a 10mm spanner and it touched my sidecar mounting strut which is connected to the frame just above the battery box. Will check the neutral light tomorrow.
Click to expand...
that's a direct short from the positive battery terminal to ground, nothing went through the bike wiring, you're ok.
 
I actually like how the design of the ST1100 battery holder forces you to disconnect the negative lead before revealing the positive terminal as you open it.
 
Sorry... to remove the battery, or even get a wrench on the positive terminal, you must first disconnect the negative lead from the battery, remove the battery holder nut, then open the battery holder before you can access the positive terminal of the battery.

This assumes the black plastic guard (highlighted in red here) over the positive terminal is still intact on your bike.
1621903142785.png


Yes, you can open the service hatch and access that tab extended from the positive terminal for testing or jumper cables, but you really have to work at producing a short that way.

1621903047209.png
 
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STRider said:
Sorry... to remove the battery, or even get a wrench on the positive terminal, you must first disconnect the negative lead from the battery, remove the battery holder nut, then open the battery holder before you can access the positive terminal of the battery.

This assumes the red plastic guard over the positive terminal is still intact on your bike.
1621903142785.png


Yes, you can open the service hatch and access that tab extended from the positive terminal for testing or jumper cables, but you really have to work at producing a short that way.
Click to expand...
my st1100 does not have that
 
Correction, mine is black, not red. My cars have red plastic covers over the positive terminals.

Can't get to the positive terminal without disconnecting the negative one first.

1621907431811.png
 
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That is one thing I do remember about my ST1100. Mine also did not have the neg wire solid bracket that was attached to the battery bracket. It did have a heavy wire holder that was an open loop for the neg wire so I COULD remove the battery bracket and pos terminal first... But only IF I didn't already know that was the wrong thing to do. I always ensure all wires that I had on the neg terminal are well removed and pulled back from the battery to ensure there would be no spark if the pos terminal or wire touched something.
 
Two months ago, I was getting out of the house, with my motorcycle battery in one hand and a ratchet in the other hand.
I put the ratchet on top of the battery, just for 5 seconds, time to open the door, and... being very carefull not to put the ratchet across battery terminals.

Yeap. Murphy's law. After you can say : what was I thinking.

I opened the door, and while I started moving out, I realised I was forgetting something. So I stopped and came back.
I heard two or three "tick". I saw like a plume of smoke, then my ratchet fell on the floor.
Only then did I realised what had just happend.
Brand new battery, from last summer, now with a quarter of connector melted.
 
red one said:
...Just thank your lucky stars you don't have a bike full of ECM modules and canbus systems etc, etc, etc. If you did it would be real expensive,
Click to expand...
A completely Luddite misunderstanding of modern Canbus systems. CAN transceivers are short circuit protected by design. An accidental short will result in no damage or "expensive" repairs. At most a simple clearing of fault codes once the short is removed is required. :rolleyes:

From Google:
"Signals are extremely low current signals and, by design, no damage will occur if either CAN High or Low are shorted to each other, B+ or ground. I have seen many shorted CAN signals caused from rodent damaged wires or faulty control modules and no damage was created by the short. Note that power-train CAN buses can not operate on "single wire mode". If either CAN high or low is shorted the communication will stop on the entire bus. Usually body related CAN buses can operate in single wire mode. If you do accidentally short either CAN signal you are likely to induce fault entries into the vehicle control modules that will need to be cleared after the wiring is repaired."

Tom
 
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