Maintenance

By

WITW National Maintenance Coordinator, Jasmine Bluecreek Clark

Agiya Nomad Chapter

"Always check the simple shit first!" I had a great old-school kind of teacher when I took my automotive technician classes at the local college many years ago and this was always his advice. "Check the simple shit first". It was and is excellent advice.

Now, I was an ASE certified auto-tech, I teach mc maintenance classes to folks, and my husband is a certified Harley mechanic. You would think that we'd have our act together when it comes to diagnosing and fixing our own motorcycles wouldn't you? I mention this because I've had this intermittent 'battery' problem now for about a month... since about the middle of our last long road trip. We finally fixed it this past Thursday, but I'll get back to that.

Hubby and I took a ten day 2100 mile trip on our bikes; about 1/2 way through the vacation my bike started to get a bit harder to start each day. Seemed like the battery was getting weak. We were riding a few hundred miles each day so it really should have been fully charged up. Well, it always did manage to start, though sluggish at first, so we thought the voltage regulator or the battery itself was going bad (things I've had trouble with on this motorcycle before). When we had to - we could jump start it from Roger's bike.

So, after arriving home and leaving it parked for a week at a time, it needed to be jumped each time I wanted to ride... even though I was leaving the battery tender on it. Still we only checked for it charging (it was) and that it had plenty of juice (voltage) in it - it did. Both of us thinking it would need to be checked out at the shop for some big serious issue. Then there were days when it started right up and I'd forget there ever was a problem.

Last week I almost got stranded when it didn't want to start while I was out running errands. When I finally got it running I headed straight for Roger's shop to get it fixed once and for all. Long story short - the battery cables (both of them), had worked loose while camping out, riding on gravel and dirt roads and some days loaded down with all our camping gear and traveling in high winds. All of this translated into lots of jiggling and bouncing around of the motorcycle - and the cables worked loose. Simple right? I even tell my students to check the easy stuff first, including for loose cables at the battery posts. The worse thing was, one of Roger's apprentices - suggested to check the cables before either of us thought of it! DUH! Proving I'm still blond (and Sshhhhh! but Roger was a blond before he went silver).

So, for electrical problems, especially intermittent ones, first always check the cables, the fuses and/or circuit breakers. If those, are OK - then move on to checking for more complicated gremlins that can plague your bikes electrical systems!

If you're still riding - bundle up and keep the battery tender on your ride, so she's ready when you are and remember to check and tighten your cables now and then.

S'miles, Jasmine