Harley 103 Battery and Seat Removal

Hi, I'm Bob LaRosa. Welcome to Fix My Hog. As with most mechanical, motorcycles, automobiles, buses, trains, they do need regular maintenance. They do need regular service. Again, when it comes to regularly maintaining this particular model the 103 Twin-Cooled High Output, you have to utilize your service manual, utilize common sense. If there's any of the regular maintenance procedures you're not comfortable with, either have a professional do it for you, or have a professional assist you doing it for the first time. You wanna make sure whatever you're gonna do pertaining to regular maintenance or service gets done correctly. Not only compromises the way the motorcycle operates but doesn't compromise your safety while you're riding. Any type of service that I do, first thing I like to do, remove the seat, remove the negative cable. This takes all the power from the chassis of the motorcycle. It also gives you the opportunity to service and maintain the battery. We'll open the tour pack. We'll use a long Phillips and access the Phillips screw at the rearward-most mounting point of the seat. We're gonna take that screw completely out. As with any hardware you remove, make sure you check its condition, make sure you know where it goes, so you can return it into the proper allocation to retain the particular component that you're servicing. I can now open the one-finger one-latch-style saddlebag lid. I'll access the seat strap screw. You'll note there is a flat washer with it. Keep all the hardware together. I can now remove the strap from the mounting tab. Just carefully lay it over the left side of the motorcycle, and now I can lift the seat up, pull it backwards. You'll notice I'm covering the tab. I don't want it to come in contact with Harley's premium paint and cause damage to it. Ideal time to take a moment, clean the bottom of the seat if it's excessively dirty and set it aside. You'll notice that these particular motorcycles, this design, does retain road debris. Ideal time, take some clean cloths, take some light solvent cleaner or some glass cleaner, compressed air, safety glasses, clean up the entire area. It's not often you have the seat off or you shouldn't have your seat off that often, but it's the time to clean it when you're here. With the seat removed, I like to make sure that the tour pack is closed and the saddlebag lid is closed. Locked into place. You can now see, we've got a clear view to the top of the battery. We can move whatever's necessary out of our way. The ECM just snaps in on top of the battery and with that removed, it gives you a good, clear view of the negative cable. It's straight down. Now for typical maintenance, I wanna make sure both my connections to the battery are tight. They're not corroded. They have a nice coating of dielectric grease. For typical regular maintenance, I don't usually remove the battery from the motorcycle, especially on this model with an external charging plug. You know the battery is maintained to full charge all the time when it's plugged in. If you have to remove this battery, pretty simple procedure. You'll loosen and remove the retaining hardware for the ECM mounting plate, and, at that point, the top of the battery's exposed. You'll remove negative first, then positive, and then there is one retainer that holds the battery from shifting in the battery compartment. Remove that, the battery comes out easy enough. You will find, as this generation of motorcycle is serviced more often, the changes that have been made are not only to the rider's benefit, but also from a service standpoint to make things easier, more accessible, and more serviceable. They expect us to put a lot more mileage on these units than they ever have in any generation prior. With the ECM removed, I can now loosen the negative and I use a Philips. You can use a 10-millimeter wrench or a 10-millimeter socket. Set the hardware aside. I can then carefully lift the negative up and away from the battery. And, always as a fail safe, I like to wrap that negative with electrical tape. With the negative cable removed from the battery, I wanna make sure I get a good wrap of electrical tape over the negative cable, the exposed end, so it can't touch any grounding surfaces and create a circuit while I'm doing the service. I can just lay the ECM back in on top of the battery. With the seat removed, the top of the battery compartment exposed, the negative cable loosened from the battery and wrapped with electrical tape to protect it from completing a circuit, we're now ready to service the fluids on the Ultra Limited.