help troubleshooting - reversed battery terminals

Hi all, I am afraid I made a stupid mistake. I was swapping a couple batteries out to troubleshoot if the battery needed to be replaced or not. During this, I am afraid I mixed up the positive and negative battery terminal connections to my '07 KTM 990 Adventure. Yes, there were some sparks, but not many. Chalked it up to connecting the battery. Now, nothing will show any sign of life. The dash gauge cluster, the headlight, the fuel pump - none of these are showing any sign of life. This is off of the battery that I was contemplating replacing that consistently would power on these, but was just having troubles turning the engine over (specifically in the cold). I checked the 10A ignition fuse and it didn't appear like it needed to be replaced. What should I do now? What I can I check? Surly there is some safety aside from the 10A ignition fuse that preventing me from doing serious damage from my bike? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've done this with a battery that had terminals on both sides. It's the big green 30a fuse that needed doing and then she was back up and running

Where would that fuse be on the 990? In the fuse box under the tank storage compartment, there is a 40A fuse, but I believe that is a spare and not connected.

This fuse is on the starter relay (and there's a spare one), right side in the bash plate on the 950, probably same area on a 990

IIRC, connector should be removed first to ba able to open the fuse cover

Okay, yes the 30 amp fuse beneath that cable sleeve is burned out. Relieved I didn't do more serious damage. Will replace and report back once I have a new battery. Thanks all?

You will want to check the rectifier as well. Did similar mistake on my dirt bike and fired that on top of blowing fuse. My rectifier smoked once corrected.

Ok, just curious what the symptom was that you saw on your motorcycle when the rectifier needed to be replaced? Just so I can keep an eye out for it

Best case (and mostly), no Voltage (or too low) out of the regulator, battery will not be fed correctly and you'll quickly stay on the side of the road.
Check the voltage when engine runs, should be 13.8 to 14.2 volts

My rectifier was smoking when bike was running. Fried the insides and was melting out the back of it.

Hi all, I am still having issues starting the bike. I bought a new battery from Batteries Plus today and had it sitting on the trickle charger all day. It went from red to green, so I can reasonably trust that it is fully charged. I placed the battery in the bike, turned the key, and all lights etc. came on as expected. I went to crank the engine and there wasn't enough power to start the engine. Not even a full rotation, it just hesitated. I am pretty confused as to what is going on here. Expected this to fire right up as I am not having enough other issues with the bike aside from a weak start, especially in the cold.

Here are my thoughts and I'd like to hear your input:
1. This issue could be related to my reversing the battery terminals yesterday, and could possibly be the rectifier? Although I am not convinced this is the problem as this is exactly what was happening to the previous battery that pushed me to replace it. It would fire right up with a jump start from another vehicle.
2. I blew the fuse (#5 below) and used the spare #6 to replace it
3. The batteries plus battery is either defective, or simply a crappy battery and I need to buy a proper battery. The specs say 225 CCA, is that not enough? The Yuasa YTZ14S has 230 CCA.
4. The alternator I don't believe is the issue because the bike runs great once started. If the alternator is the issue, then it would die while running as well as have a weak start, correct?

1. If you had this issue before the new battery, more than likely you have the same cause as before. R/R (rectifier regulator) wouldn't prevent the engine from turning over. So if you jump start it will fire up? Are you jumping directly to the battery terminals or jumping to other points on the bike?

2. The fuse isn't the issue.

3. While I'm not a fan of the Batteries Plus house batteries 225cca is more than enough to start the engine. Unless you have to keep cranking and cranking in cold temperatures.

4. Alternator also would not cause this issue. If the alternator wasn't working the battery would die would eventually die after running for quite some time or after numerous starts.


I'm thinking you have a bad high amperage connection, for example battery or starter. Check all cables and connections. Or the other possibility is a bad starter relay.

Or you have a bad battery charger. Get the battery load tested.

1. Yet, it jump starts just fine. Had to do it 3x the other day, after trickle charging it all night with a green light in the morning. I jump start it from these points:

Starter cable: I don't believe it is this because it starts great from a jump start
Battery cable: This could be a problem, but if I jump start the bike, ride it, then shut it off to run into the store, it will start when I come out 30 min later
Starter relay: Is this the 10A in the fuse panel between the fuel tanks? If so, it is not burned up, I did check.

Any thoughts appreciated, thanks in advance.

This could be the problem, however it isn't conclusive. It is the battery tender Jr. It went from red to eventually green today with the new battery. When I unplugged it while it was red and replugged it back in, it would show red again. Same with green. So at least it was consistent. Maybe it was consistently bad haha. This might be the easiest place to start - swap the trickle charger out at walmart since I just bought it not that long ago. Might go for the bigger (non Jr. trickle charger).

So jumping it at those points and not directly on the battery, you are bypassing a couple connections. Again,,, check all positive and especially negative connections.

Starter relay is the device you changed the fuse in when you hooked the battery up incorrectly.

Same as Boatman, check the wire/connection from the battery to the relay and to the ground

I'm not sure if you experienced this, but when I had my battery the wrong way, my starter motor was spinning as soon as I connected it.

This ^^^.

Here is what I did this morning:

1. hooked jumper cables from car directly to battery leads on bike. Wouldn't turn over.
2. connected bike battery, then connected jumper cables on the right side of engine as shown in picture a couple posts back. Bike turned over
3. Disconnected jumper cables and bike started just fine on it's own battery

What gives? Thoroughly confused. By the way, this is consistent with what was happening before I replaced battery and accidentally reversed battery terminals.