Slow Crank

No, I'm not talking about my manly bits! I certainly don't need any of those little blue pills. I'm talking about the wife's motorcycle. Yesterday, I pulled it out of the shed to get it ready for a quick ride into town for breakfast. I put the key in, turned it to on, then hit the starter button. Oh, she cranked over, but it didn't seem like it was as fast as usually.

Now, this has been an ongoing problem. The last couple times we went for a ride her bike, after sitting for extended periods of time, was hesitant to start. You see, the wife is not a fool like me. She actually has an "off season" when it comes to riding. She's been known to park her bike for extended periods of time during the fall/winter months. (To be quite honest, I'm sure she thought she was done riding for the season.) But yesterday... it was incredibly warm! We decided we had to take advantage of the nice weather. Hell, at nine o'clock in the morning it was already 50 degrees out. That's awesome!

So, there I was, standing next to her bike which refused to start. I decided to hook up my battery charger to it to give it a little something extra. Call it it's own Viagra . The last couple of times it started right up by putting the charger on it for about ten minutes, then flipping it over to the 'boost' setting. She'd fire right up and wouldn't give us anymore trouble... until parked again for an extended period of time.

I drug the charger and extension cord over to the bike and popped off the right-hand cover to get access to the battery. Low-and-behold, when I jiggled the bike I thought I didn't see but just a little bit a water in the battery. I made a mental note to check into this further when we returned from breakfast. Luckily, the sun was at my back which allowed me to see into and through the battery.

On our return I pulled the battery to get a better look and, sure enough, she was almost out of water. And I call myself a mechanic?!? I should be ashamed. I deserve a spanking and I know just the person to give it to me. "Oh, honey... You busy?"

Oh, sorry about that... Where was I? Oh yeah. Dead battery.



I mean look at that! The battery's almost completely empty. I'm surprised it cranked the engine at all.

I didn't have any distilled water on hand to refill the battery, so I ran some tap water through our Brita filter and used that. Please, what ever you do, don't refill a low battery with battery acid. It can cause an explosion. Very bad, indeed! And straight tap water isn't much better. One piece of crap can short out a plate rendering the battery useless. Also very bad!



After topping off the battery with a syringe, I put her on the charger to make sure everything was up to snuff. Once satisfied, I reinstalled the battery into the wife's bike, buttoned her up, and put her back in the shed. Oh, and I hooked her back up to the battery tender. (The bike; not the wife. although that could be fun... Hmmm!)

So, that's today's tip for you. If you're going to be storing your motorcycle, watercraft, ATV, whatever, check the water level in the battery and top it off if necessary. Oh, and don't forget to add fuel stabilizer, too.