Harley Sportster Battery Removal & Seat Removal

We're gonna put the motorcycle up on the lift. We're gonna tighten the forward vise. Always nice to have two people hold the bike. Mark's gonna grab the Handy tie-downs. You're always going to make a point to secure the motorcycle to the lift before you put it up in the air. We're gonna start this service. Mark's gonna remove the Phillips bolts from the seat. I'm gonna remove the left side cover. Any painted pieces you remove, set them aside on a clean shop towel. Don't let them get scuffed up. With the side cover removed, you can see the battery. Once I remove the seat, you'll push forward, you give it a little bend up, you remove it. Also set your upholstered pieces aside. Don't let them get torn. Now with the seat removed, you can see the rubber-mounted Sportster's ignition module. You can see the positive terminal on the battery. The fuse box is open with the side cover off. To start the service, I like to just give a quick tension on the bolts of the battery to make sure that they're secure before we start. Be careful the wrench doesn't hit anything on the positive side. I'm gonna start the motorcycle. We wanna turn on the rocker switch. Always wait for your check engine light to go out. When that's out, we'll start the motorcycle. We're gonna wanna put our volt meter. As you can see, this motorcycle's output was in the mid-14 volt DC range. If you exceed 15 volts or don't come up to quite 14 volts, you have an inherent charging system problem that should be checked out in further detail. Next step on the service is always to unhook the negative cable before we drain any fluids or we actually get into any of the drive line components. On this particular rubber-mounted Sportster, we wanna remove the Maxi fuse holder from the battery tray. We wanna remove the battery strap. I just wanna take a quick note and mention the battery positions, locations, and mountings have changed over the years. That's what makes your service manual so important, model and year specific. With the bolt removed, the upper battery strap removed. This point, I'm gonna pull the battery up and out of the battery box. Mark will give me a 10-millimeter wrench. We wanna loosen and remove the negative cable first. Negative cable will always be the first off and the last on during any service. The reason for this is you'll never get a spark if you touch the frame when working with the negative cable, first and last. If you work with the positive first and last, you can spark the wrench against any metal surfaces. With the bolt removed from the negative cable, always securely hold on to the battery so it can't swing and fall out of the bike. Once the negative is removed from the battery and tucked away so it's not contacting the battery, remove the positive cover boot. You can loosen and, at this point, remove the positive. Always note, not only the number of wires, but their location on the positive of the battery. With the cables removed from the battery, I'm gonna have Mark take the battery and set it aside. Again, in a nice, warm, dry area. Once the battery is removed from the battery box, you wanna take time. Tug and pull, watch all your routing of lines, cables, plugs, and connectors. This is your bike. It's important to make sure harnesses and all the operating components around the battery compartment, although tight, stay intact.