Motorcycle Battery Maintenance and Cleaning
Bob LaRosaDescription
In this video, you’ll learn battery maintenance tips that will ensure your Harley’s battery is functioning properly and performing its best. Plus, learn how to identify sulfaction and what to do to prevent it.
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Let's take a moment and discuss correct battery cable connection and battery maintenance. One of my pet peeves, when cables are installed incorrectly to the battery. This cable is backwards. You can see the large portion of the lug contacts the body of the battery before the cable connector contacts the lug. Reason for that is it's on backwards. Take a minute and loosen it. I can pull it up away from the battery, and you can see it's incorrect. When you tighten it down, this portion of the cable touches the body of the battery before it makes complete contact. You want to flip that cable over so that the large portion of the cable faces away from the body of the battery. You can then put your spacer back on. Re-install it. Make sure the battery cable's routed correctly, and tighten it back into place. Again, whoever changed this battery or added an accessory or unhooked this cable last, didn't pay attention to the direction the cable was routed when they returned it back to the battery. With the cable returned back to the negative side of the battery, it's running the right direction. You can see clearly how much room you have between the body of the battery and the cable. Make sure it's tightened correctly. And always use a little bit of dielectric grease to protect the cable and the battery lug from not only sulfation, but also the elements. On the positive side of this battery, there's a nice example of sulfation. See the white powder? That's sulfation. It's caused by one of two things. Either the connection's loose and it's allowing the charge from the battery to have to bridge across the spacer to the cable, and it's creating a sulfation, which is the white powder. Or the battery just has not been maintained correctly. Any time you see sulfation like this, loosen the connection. You don't necessarily need to remove it, but loosen it. Clean it good with a nylon brush. Again, it's the positive terminal. Don't use a wire brush 'cause if you touch ground, it'll create a spark. Make sure you clean all that powder residue away. Make sure that it's cleaned off of the battery, and then you can install a little bit of dielectric grease. The grease acts as a protective coating that'll keep the sulfation from happening, and it'll also lubricate the terminal. So the next time you need to tighten this terminal, loosen it, or replace the battery, you won't have to worry about the bolt on the end of that cable being frozen either to the lug of the battery or to the cable.
Want to learn to wrench on my 2014 Harley Street Glide Special
Would love to learn how to wrench on my own Harley . 2014 Street Glide Special.
Hi Bob, Great Video, I find backward's cables on friends bikes a lot. Please wear safety glasses Thanks Louie
Why not check and clean the positive terminal while the negative terminal is disconnected? Would be less chance for sparks,
Hey guys need ur help.I was tighten up my positive cable on battery of my 1200s sportster(97) model and accidently touched the frame w/my wrench! Spark city! Turn the key and nutten happens! Must have shorted out something but what?? No lights,no start,no nutten! What have I done to my electrical system? Circut breakers "look" ok but whats the problem?? HELP!