Bullet question...dead batteries
 

Hi all, My batteries are dead in my Bullet and of course the hatch won't go up to charge them. I've had the shore power hooked up for quite awhile but guess it's just made to maintain, rather than recharge. Anyway, I've heard that you can hook up 12 power to a couple of connections on the hydraulic pump under the rear seat and the hatch will go up. Does anybody have any idea exactly what connections to use, before I just start trying them all. Thanks.

You could also try one of those charges that plug into a cigarette lighter and charge the batteries that way. Or at least get enough juice to them to open the hatch.

If you put the power on the wrong one you will hear the tabs or drives move. When you find the hatch I think is on the port side under the seat. if it does not go in the right direction reveres the connection.

Mine is port side and I just used a power pack on mine to do it on saturday morning. I believe i followed the single red wire and put the positve there and connected the negative to the connection right below it.

The unit is under the seat on the port side. It appears to have two sets of solenoids. The red wire is on the right side, there is a blue wire on one and a green wire on the other. So are you saying that this unit controls the drives and tabs as well?? Thanks for you input.

A friend told me that by plugging in the shore power and turning the charger on that it should have enough juice to power the hatch at that point, but mine doesn't and it has been plugged in for quite some time now as I mentioned. Thanks.

Hi John
I would try going to one of the battery switches with either another battery and jumper cables or a portable jumper box. The former owner of my Bullet wired in jumper posts to the + and - lead mounted on the fiberglass tunnel between the bulkhead and switches.

Once you get the batteries replaced, you should check your charger. It may be dead.

Good luck!

Is the breaker for the charger on? I know, stupid question but I spent 45 minutes once trying to figure out why one engine wouldn't start because someone bumped the breaker for the ignition. :throw:

Hi John,

Do you hear the pump under the seat clicking or trying to open the hatch or is it completely dead silent? If it is clicking it is trying to open and you can manually assist the pump by lifting the hatch by hand. This worked for me in the past.

Evan

That's a for sure possibility. I hear it humming which indicates it is on, but apparently it isn't doing anything. And I'll definitely look into it when I finally get it open. Thanks.

Well there's an interesting suggestion that I hadn't heard of. I'll check that one out. Thanks.

Cig 1988,

Would you happen to have a pic of how your Bullet has wired in jumper posts to the + and - lead mounted on the fiberglass tunnel between the bulkhead and switches? That sounds like a great upgrade!

Thanks

John you can use a jump box or charger and go directly to the pump the blue is up and green is down. Just hook up the the positive and negative with box or charger and make you a little jumper wire and its up. Been there before.

I'll try to get one this weekend. Evidently the former owner may have had the same problem as John. The post's are on each side with a plastic cap protecting the inevitable.

dont even mess with jumping power to the solinoid there
There a power and grouond to the pummp red and black hook charger up to those and then put charger in high amperage then iuse switch on dash

I will take some pics to night and lable the terminals for yopu

John
Did you get this to work?

Not yet....it was rainy and nasty here yesterday, so will try today. If no luck will take a pic of my unit and post then. Thanks again to all who have commented. That's what makes this such a great site.

Haven't gotten down to try again as yet. Were you able to take any pics to clarify things for me? Thanks for your help. John

Just take a jump box or good battery and run a wire from it directly to the hatch switch behind the dash. I did it several times on my Pantera.

here you go

just hook battery charger or jumper battery to these terminals and hit switch on dash you may have to go to jump start moode on charger

Thanks a ton, the pic looks great, but altho I don't have a pic of mine...yet...that doesn't look anything like my configuration. Will find out today. Thanks again. John

Tried a variety of connections with and without using the switch, all to no avail. Haven't tried any kind of jumper yet. But here is a pic of mine. Thanks everyone for your input. John

Whoopee
 

OK, here is the deal. After lots of trial and error all with no success, I began to think maybe the electric motor was frozen or bad. Anyway, I called a friend at a local marina and he was able to stop by for a look. He hooked it up just like I had been doing and said it was trying to run, but maybe my charger wasn't big enough, it was only a 4 Amp model. So I went and got my 10 Amp/start model he hooked it up and the hatch came right up.

So, for future reference, the blue wire is "up", so hook the positive from the charger up to it, and the negative up to the black wire for ground and it should work.

Thanks to all for everyone's input and suggestions.
John

As a general rule of thumb, the blue (sky) is up and the green (grass) is down. :cool:

Have a similar problem, without the dead batteries. When I hit the dash switch, in either direction I get a clicking sound from the solenoid that is mounted in the engine compartment.( it has the 2 positives from the batteries along with other wires connected to it) I can jump the red on the pump bracket (the pump is under the rear bench) to either the blue(up) or green (down) and it will raise and lower the hatch. I replaced the up solenoid because one of the studs stripped and still nothing. I removed and wirewheeled all ring terminals to no avail. I figure the dash switch must be good if its activating the solenoid. What does that solenoid in the engine compartment have to do with hatch operation?

Got it. Looked at the wiring diagram and it turned out to be the circuit breaker on the panel just inside the cabin over the storage locker. It must have accidentally been shut off going into the cabin.

Done that before hit a couple of them and had lots of stuff dead. Flipped a switch and fixed easy fix.

The wiring on a bullet or at least mine is crazy. Pulled out 2500' of it!