I had an 8K service a couple of weeks ago. I'm planning on putting a new set of PR3s on between the PNRR and the National to be ready for the Epic Ride.
I've mentioned, I think, that my friend Ken had been to Alaska, wearing out his tires in the process of getting to Anchorage. So, naturally, he bought a new motorcycle, a 2010 KTM Adventure 990, for $2600 less than invoice plus they threw in the $1600 Hepco and Becker luggage.
Ken is my mechanical consultant and I needed him today. Yesterday, I came out of the hospital after what I hope will be my last hospital visit for a bit and the bike wouldn't start. It turned over but wouldn't fire. I had just called Ken about swinging by his place to take a gander at the KTM. I called him back to tell him that I was stuck (a whole block from his house and he said he'd grab his jumper cables and be right there. After I hung up, I tried one more time and the bike fired up and ran OK the rest of the day.
This morning I'd had several errands to run and on the last one (which was a church-related chore -- getting tags and titles for our church's Scout troop's trailers), I came out and the bike wouldn't start. I finally found someone who could come to the court-house and try to jump me. But no matter how long we sat, voltage never got above 11.8 and the bike never fired. It would only turn over about 10-12 seconds before the solenoid started clicking.
I called Sun Honda and ran my theory that I had a battery issue past one of the service writers. He thought that sounded reasonable. They only had one battery in stock, so I put it on hold and drove to Denver to get it. When they brought it out, the polarity of the connectors was wrong and they said it was the battery the parts list called for. So I went up to service and got my mechanic to come out. He agreed with me about the orientation of the +/- poles on the battery and went down to parts to check it out. When he came up he pulled the battery out of the box and laid it on its side. That made the polarity correct. I had forgotten that it was a gel battery and could be oriented in different ways. I felt pretty stupid but the service manage said, "Not as stupid as you would have felt if you'd driven 130 miles and the battery didn't fit.
I told my mechanic what was going on and he said, "Man, I hope your fuel pump hasn't gone south."
I worried about that all the way home. I went down to the courthouse parking lot pulled the old battery and started trying to put the new one in. I couldn't get the positive connector bolt started and finally called Ken. He came and we fiddled for an hour before we got that done. The bike runs
fine, but I (more properly Ken) have wires to sort out. The Denalis aren't getting any power to the switch and the cruise control control pad stays lit even when the bike is turned off.
Ken's going to come over tomorrow and we'll work through the rat's nest of wiring I've got.
I'm so relieved that the fuel pump wasn't the issue. I was afraid the PNRR was out and worried about getting to Spearfish. I could just see sitting around two or three weeks waiting on a fuel
pump to get here from Italy or somewhere.
I did the same thing and we wound up scratching our heads for a few minutes until we figured it out. The kicker is that the battery probably didn't need to be replaced. It was winter and the bike turned over slowly, so I checked it with my garage meter. It read low, so I decided to replace it figuring that the year the thing sat before I bought it probably didn't do the battery any good. When I stuck the new one in, I checked it with the meter and it read low, though not as bad. I was peeved, but decided to check it with my good basement meter and it measured fine. Seems that my garage meter is NFG.
