Finally winterized the GTX yesterday. I have the GTX in a portable garage (steel frame with thick tarp material cover) beside my house. Here in central NC, we get below freezing just enough that winterizing is required. So far I had on old incandescent light bulb burning in the engine compartment to provide enough heat to keep it from freezing, but was paranoid that we would lose power or the bulb would burn out and it would freeze.
Once I figured out the DI winterizing process, it was pretty easy and straight forward. However, I initially got mixed up with the carb model directions in the owners manual... which differ quite a bit from the DI model directions. Also took some trial and error to find some tubing and a funnel the right size for pouring in the antifreeze.
Even with the hickups, I think I could have done it in 30 minutes... had I not dropped both of the nuts while removing the battery. I ended up taking out the seat support so I could fit my hands down in there to retrieve them. Now that I know how it works, I think I could do the job in 15-20 minutes.
An issue I'm having with the battery:
I keep a trickle charger on it. I disconnected the trickle charger and put on the key. Heard the fuel pump run, then hit the start button. It didn't have enough juice to spin the engine over a complete rotation. So, I removed the battery and put it on my auto charger. It showed full charge after about 2 minutes. Disconnected the charger and battery showed about 13.7V. Reinstalled in GTX and got the same behavior as before... put on key, heard fuel pump, pushed start button, the crank rotated about 10 degrees, then back to original position... not enough juice to turn past compression stroke. Checked the battery again... read 11.2V. Odd, huh?
Battery was bought new mid/late summer 2013, so not even a year old. It appears to be full of acid (not dry). Wondering if I have a bad battery.
BTW, when I put the battery-powered jump pack on it the GTX starts and runs.
Sound like a bad battery to y'all?
