Jumping cables on my bike I crossed the wires and shorted out

Question

I have a 99 Suzuki katana gsx600f. I was trying to get it started in a hurry so I didn't pay attention to where I was placing the jumper cables. I cross wired them and as soon as the clamp touched the post the bike went completely dead, and killed a brand new battery.

Any ideas on what other of damage might have happened to the bike. Maybe a fuse or a relay or worse case scenario computer if it has one.

Answer 1

I suggest that you fit a known good battery and fit an extra fuse in the supply wire just for testing - a 55W headlight bulb can work for this...

Then start testing what circuits work : simple like horn then lights and proceed onwards...

You should be aware that some electronic devices won’t be protected by any fuse - the fuse is generally designed to protect from short-circuits, not reverse polarity.

Answer 2

There's very good odds that you've blown at least one fuse. Checking the fusebox would be a very good place to start.

If you're lucky, the fuses did their job, and nothing else is damaged.

Edit:

I'm not sure exactly where the fusebox lives on a '99 katana, but there are two ways to check each fuse.

• check for continuity with a multimeter.
• visually check for a link between the fuse links. What this looks like depends on the type of fuse, either blade or other. For coloured blade fuses it can be quite hard to see if the connection is present, so I prefer a multimeter to check electrical continuity.

it's a lot easier to get each fuse back in the right place if you only remove one fuse at a time.