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I figured I'd post this as I couldn't find detailed info on changing a battery...
Had a fabulous weekend Oct 1/2 biking all over Mass and Connecticut and then, about a mile from home, I pull in to get gas, fill the tank -- and the bike wouldn't start. The headlight worked but would flicker off when I pressed the starter and the starter kind of lurched a little but not even close to turning over. I managed to walk the bike to a slight incline in a parking lot nearby, got on and shoved off with my feet and popped the clutch in 2nd to get it started. Got it home and same behavior -- won't start back up.
I did a search on these forums, which have been a lifesaver, and found a lot of info about batteries and electrical problems. This is my first bike and I never knew you actually had to maintain the battery regularly. I bought my 1982 GS 750E about 2 months ago and have put 3000 miles on it since then. Well, as it turns out I should have been checking the battery fluid and adding some distilled water probably every 1000 miles. While from what I read here it might have been the stator, regulator, etc. I figured I'd just change the battery first and hope that fixed everything.
Well getting to the battery was a pretty big pain. I removed the seat, then there's this heavy plastic box which contains the air filter and connects to the carb. It's shoved under the frame with a knobby part that is kind of up against the brake fluid cap on the right of the bike. So I removed the left and right panels, which just popped off easily, and then unscrewed the clip mounting the brake fluid cap so I could push that out of the way. I couldn't get to one of the screws on the air filter hose so I went to the left side of the bike and took off two of the screws mounting the regulator and fuse box, remembering that I have a much beefier aftermarket regulator -- the guy I bought the bike from put this on. It looked fine and there were no blown fuses. I unhooked the air filter hose and wrestled the entire air filter box out of the bike. Now I could see the top of the battery.
I once worked with an electrician who told me, "If you want to avoid most shocks use the one hand rule -- you keep one hand behind your back and don't use it, only using the other, and you usually won't get shocked. Every time I get shocked it's because I used two hands." So using one hand, I unhooked the negative terminal first and then the positive. This is safer because if you unhook the positive first and while you're doing that, hit the bike frame or anything connected to the ground/negative terminal you're going to short the battery and at the very least have dangerous sparks or possibly you'll get a nasty shock or even explode the battery. After getting both terminals off I rocked the battery back and forth a little and lifted it straight out.
It turns out the battery was almost totally empty of fluid. Oddly, it still registered a charge of 13.5 volts, but of course if I had tested it under any load that would have probably dropped to almost nothing. I suppose I could have tried adding distilled water but I didn't know how old this battery was or when it might fail again because I had let it run dry, so I took it to MTR and got a new one. It was funny too, the guy behind the counter picks up and looks at the battery and says, geez...this is almost totally empty of fluid! I laughed and said yeah, I'm a newbie rider and didn't know you had to maintain it...oh well!
When I put the new one in I had picked up a trickle charger and it had terminal shaped leads you could screw on when putting in the new battery, and twist the cord into the frame, leaving a way to charge the battery without taking anything apart. I put on the positive terminal first, then the negative, being careful to use one hand and not to touch the charger leads together. I took out the old plastic acid burping hose with work gloves and put it into a plastic cup which I put in a bag and then threw that all into the trash. I replaced the hose with the new one that came with the battery and made sure everything was tight. Then the difficult part came in getting that pesky air filter box in again.
I spent about 30 minutes wrestling with the hose that connected it to the carb and finally I think I got it all on there, except the bottom was less on than the top which was definitely all the way on. The bottom was barely on and no matter what I did I couldn't get it even with the top. I tried loosening the clamps as much as I could and that didn't really help. So after I did the best I could I screwed the clamp back on and left it. I'll try again in 1000 miles when I have to put water in the battery. Maybe it'd be easier if I just removed both sides of the hose and put it on the carb first before putting the plastic box back in.
After this I screwed the plate with the fusebox and regulator back on, put back on the brake fluid cap with its clamp, popped the plastic side panels back in, and finally put the seat back on. Result? Bike started up immediately and ran great!
Maybe I didn't do everything the best way but hey, I got it all done in less than 2 hours including a test ride :-)
Happy riding!
Had a fabulous weekend Oct 1/2 biking all over Mass and Connecticut and then, about a mile from home, I pull in to get gas, fill the tank -- and the bike wouldn't start. The headlight worked but would flicker off when I pressed the starter and the starter kind of lurched a little but not even close to turning over. I managed to walk the bike to a slight incline in a parking lot nearby, got on and shoved off with my feet and popped the clutch in 2nd to get it started. Got it home and same behavior -- won't start back up.
I did a search on these forums, which have been a lifesaver, and found a lot of info about batteries and electrical problems. This is my first bike and I never knew you actually had to maintain the battery regularly. I bought my 1982 GS 750E about 2 months ago and have put 3000 miles on it since then. Well, as it turns out I should have been checking the battery fluid and adding some distilled water probably every 1000 miles. While from what I read here it might have been the stator, regulator, etc. I figured I'd just change the battery first and hope that fixed everything.
Well getting to the battery was a pretty big pain. I removed the seat, then there's this heavy plastic box which contains the air filter and connects to the carb. It's shoved under the frame with a knobby part that is kind of up against the brake fluid cap on the right of the bike. So I removed the left and right panels, which just popped off easily, and then unscrewed the clip mounting the brake fluid cap so I could push that out of the way. I couldn't get to one of the screws on the air filter hose so I went to the left side of the bike and took off two of the screws mounting the regulator and fuse box, remembering that I have a much beefier aftermarket regulator -- the guy I bought the bike from put this on. It looked fine and there were no blown fuses. I unhooked the air filter hose and wrestled the entire air filter box out of the bike. Now I could see the top of the battery.
I once worked with an electrician who told me, "If you want to avoid most shocks use the one hand rule -- you keep one hand behind your back and don't use it, only using the other, and you usually won't get shocked. Every time I get shocked it's because I used two hands." So using one hand, I unhooked the negative terminal first and then the positive. This is safer because if you unhook the positive first and while you're doing that, hit the bike frame or anything connected to the ground/negative terminal you're going to short the battery and at the very least have dangerous sparks or possibly you'll get a nasty shock or even explode the battery. After getting both terminals off I rocked the battery back and forth a little and lifted it straight out.
It turns out the battery was almost totally empty of fluid. Oddly, it still registered a charge of 13.5 volts, but of course if I had tested it under any load that would have probably dropped to almost nothing. I suppose I could have tried adding distilled water but I didn't know how old this battery was or when it might fail again because I had let it run dry, so I took it to MTR and got a new one. It was funny too, the guy behind the counter picks up and looks at the battery and says, geez...this is almost totally empty of fluid! I laughed and said yeah, I'm a newbie rider and didn't know you had to maintain it...oh well!
When I put the new one in I had picked up a trickle charger and it had terminal shaped leads you could screw on when putting in the new battery, and twist the cord into the frame, leaving a way to charge the battery without taking anything apart. I put on the positive terminal first, then the negative, being careful to use one hand and not to touch the charger leads together. I took out the old plastic acid burping hose with work gloves and put it into a plastic cup which I put in a bag and then threw that all into the trash. I replaced the hose with the new one that came with the battery and made sure everything was tight. Then the difficult part came in getting that pesky air filter box in again.
I spent about 30 minutes wrestling with the hose that connected it to the carb and finally I think I got it all on there, except the bottom was less on than the top which was definitely all the way on. The bottom was barely on and no matter what I did I couldn't get it even with the top. I tried loosening the clamps as much as I could and that didn't really help. So after I did the best I could I screwed the clamp back on and left it. I'll try again in 1000 miles when I have to put water in the battery. Maybe it'd be easier if I just removed both sides of the hose and put it on the carb first before putting the plastic box back in.
After this I screwed the plate with the fusebox and regulator back on, put back on the brake fluid cap with its clamp, popped the plastic side panels back in, and finally put the seat back on. Result? Bike started up immediately and ran great!
Maybe I didn't do everything the best way but hey, I got it all done in less than 2 hours including a test ride :-)
Happy riding!
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