Please can anyone tell me FOR CERTAIN how to connect my new Tayna battery to my 75th Anniversary California?
Yes, I know I should have made a careful note but…
I have one cable that is clearly and indisputably Earth/ Negative.
2 others have the remains of red plastic sleeving so are Live / Positive.
The other one is the problem!
Plain black sleeving, I cut this back carefully which revealed 5 x plain black smaller cables inside.
Now, I thought that this also went to Negative / Earth but it keeps springing back towards the Positive terminal which makes me wonder whether it has been there for many years!
“This old tractor” wiring diagram shows 3 cables to Positive and only one to Earth.
Part of me wants to simply put it onto the Earth / Negative terminal anyway and try BUT the other (sensible?) part says that this might blow something expensive like the ECU if I am wrong.
Advice please???
Do you not have a mutimeter with continuity tester? Or failing that rig up a bit of wire with a small bulb and torch battery. Simple mutimeters are very cheap and it’s always handy to have one.
I do have a multi-meter but have all the electrical skills of a blind chimpanzee!
A conversation with my local shop (who replaced my rectifier a while back) convinced me that the bound together cables must be the cable to the starter motor.
(All other cables are not very thick.)
Fitted it like that - i.e. fitted the cable to the Positive terminal - and the bike still sounds as if the battery is flat i.e. starter motor turns over feebly.
New battery showing 12.75 volts on my meter but…
Battery now fully charged (13.1 volts) and fitted - exactly the same outcome, just a “clonk” when I operate the starter button - all lights etc. turned off.
Cables to battery and starter solenoid all cleaned back to shiny metal and refitted.
So I tried fitting a direct Earth from one of the starter motor mounting bolts in the bell-housing (not the power cables!) to the Negative / Earth terminal and there was a massive spark between the battery and the cable.
Now, I really do Know B***** All about electrickery but presumably that means I have a short circuit somewhere?
Oo-er! Sounds like the positive terminal is connected to frame.
You can use the Ohms function of the meter to identify which goes to frame, should = zero or very low Ohms; therefore that one goes to negative, the others must go to positive.
Thanks Mike.
I sort of came to that conclusion as well - in so far as I realised something was badly wrong and that one of the connections might well be cocked up!
Two long sessions of fiddling have triggered my back-ache and exhausted my patience so it will probably be on its way to the local repair shop this week.
Fortunately I have a proper old-fashioned family-run shop only a couple of miles away and Tony aka Rambo likes tracing wiring problems.
Maybe your lazy sounding starter is just that - a lazy/knackered/“magnet fallen off” (if a Valeo) starter. Could you get the starter off and either take it to a starter specialist to test or do it your self with it on the bench? If a knackered starter give me a shout before you buy one I got a new Valeo copy last week, that I hope to fit tonight, for £50 less than the normal.
