I joined the PC800 Yahoo group and "posted" this, but it never showed up. Maybe it's held because I'm a new member. Anyway, I'll post it here, but it isn't about a NH.
I took a Sunday ride on my ’90 PC800 before I left for Croatia. Stopped at a gas station and the battery was so weak that I was lucky to have someone give me a push start. I made it home, but I was praying all the way it would have enough spark. I was hoping the battery was bad, but Advance Auto Parts told me it was good. Did a search of the archives on the PC800 group and on Google. Got some diagnostics. Bought a decent VOM and rolled up my sleeves. Stator? R/R? Got the battery halfway pulled out of the bike so that I could see the + terminal. Cold voltage-OK. Voltage with ignition on-OK. Start bike, rev to 3–4K for that check and I see sparks coming from the + terminal. OMG, shut off the bike. Why the &%# is there a prong on the + battery terminal connector that sticks out past the edge of the battery? It poked out from the red protector and evidently touched the frame. I wasn’t aware that it was there. I moved the battery so that it no longer touched the frame and breathed a sigh of relief that I got it shut off in time. Restarted the bike, or went to, heard a snap or pop, and the bike went black. Figured OK, so I blew a fuse. Checked all fuses (the ones in the fuse box on the left side and the main one on the solenoid, if that = “all”) with a VOM. All are fine. Changed the main 30V with a new one just to be sure. Bike remains as dead as if it had no battery at all. Other than loading it on a trailer and taking it to a shop, can anyone tell me how to begin to troubleshoot this thing? If a fuse is not blown, what did I most likely damage? What is my best course of action for tracking down what I did. Once I get it so it lights up again, I can start trying to figure out why it isn’t charging the battery… Any advice welcome. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nighthawk_lovers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
