Battery Nuts and Bolts

[jgeier]

I took my '09 FJR to a lunch date with my girlfriend today and ran a couple errands. It's one of the last nice days and I took today off. I wanted to be on the road today and enjoy the bike I've only had 4 months. I haven't had a bike since I was 18. I'm 42 now. For the last several years I've been wanting a bike but financially have had to say "next year" to that idea for many years. I've put 3200 miles on the bike since I got it. I haven't taken a long tour with it. I will next year though for sure. Anyway, when I got home from lunch and the errands I ran inside the house for about 10 minutes and ended up forgetting to turn the key off. It would't start. I tried bump starting it down the driveway a few times before I gave up and decided to jump it off my car. I pushed it up on the center stand and hooked the cables up. After a few minutes I decided it should be good and went to fire the bike up. I hit the starter and blew the 50 amp fuse. Damn. So I ran to the NAPA and picked one up. While there, I related my story to the parts guy and asked about battery chargers. He showed me a trickle charger cable that hooks to a trickle charger so it can be unplugged and plugged in anytime. It just had the positive lead and negative lead and an inline fuse and a special plug on the other end. I decided that was the way to go. I bought it and when I got home I went to install the new fuse. Space was tight and I couldn't easily get it lined up and ended up dropping the fuse behind where it was plugged in. I pulled the battery and got it... Then I went to hook the trickle charger cable up and realized that when I pulled the battery I paid no attention to the battery bolts and couldn't find them! I went to the hardware store and bought bolts, but when i tried them they wouldn't side into the opening and wouldn't work. I then went to the auto parts store and the parts guy there (it was a different parts store, the NAPA had closed) said that they didn't sell the bolts there but he scrounged and found some bolts and nuts for me. The bolts were smaller, but he didn't charge me so I was on my way back to try to fit them. Of course, they're too small and aren't going to work at all. So here I sit with my bike and no battery nuts. I have the bolts. Hey, at least I got around to cleaning my bike and putting on the frame sliders. They were the first and only farkle I've put on my bike. I read many of the topics on these forums and that was the most recommended farkle. I got the OES frame slider. The cleaning was necessary because I drove through a road construction job where they were laying fresh asphalt. My bike was caked with it. It doesn't want to come off easily. It was everywhere on the under carriage.

So, anyone have any thoughts or ideas. I figured I'd hit up the Yamaha dealer where I bought it tomorrow. I looked all over and found the fiche but it didn't have the battery, battery nuts or bolts.

This was the first time I had any of the panels off the bike. I took the hard bags and trunk off first thing this morning. It was only the second time I'd had those off. I'm loving learning the bike. It makes me feel even better about being an owner. My next challenge will be the first winter. I'll need to do some reading on winterizing and storing. I purchased the '09 4 months ago, it was brand new on the showroom floor.

 

[0Face]

I have a set of the bolts and nuts from when I changed batteries. They're the OEM ones. You can have them if you want. I'm in Chicago so it should't take long to get to you, but I won't be able to mail them until Thursday. I have to go out of town first thing tomorrow and I wont be back until late.

Just email me at: martinbwalsh (at) gmail.com if you want them.

 

[jgeier]

I'll contact the dealer tomorrow. If they have to order them, I'll take them! If they have them, I'll just pay the dealer. I'm chomping at the bit to get that bike back on the road as much as possible before winter!

 

[airboss]

Just ask the service manager if they have some old batteries you could take the bolts off of. That's what I would do. Did.

 

[0Face]

Good idea Karl.

Let me know if you need 'em.

 

[TomInPA]

Beat me to it. I have a set I was looking at yesterday when I put the stock battery on a tender (I have a Shorai batt). Any dealer should have these common square nuts and the screws that go through the terminal. I wanted to suggest you get some foam insulation like you put into doors with the adhesive on one side. You can use a tiny piece of that to hold the nut in the battery terminal. Just wedge it in place and the terminal screws will easily attach, and you won't lose the nuts again.

 

[jgeier]

Great ideas, thanks! This is why I told my gf that I had to post this story to this forum.... all the great ideas and help.

 

[jgeier]

Reading these forums was how I learned how to:

1) Disassemble the bike to locate the battery

2) Realized that I had blown the 50 amp fuse by doing something that i learned later was bone-heded (leaving the jumper cables on while attempting to start).

3) Got the recommendation for the frame sliders.

4) Got support and suggestions for fixing my collective bone-headed moves today.

This place is great.

Reading these forums was how I learned how to:

1) Disassemble the bike to locate the battery

2) Realized that I had blown the 50 amp fuse by doing something that i learned later was bone-heded (leaving the jumper cables on while attempting to start).

3) Got the recommendation for the frame sliders.

4) Got support and suggestions for fixing my collective bone-headed moves today.

This place is great.

 

[Tango Sierra]

I had been powering my radar detector with a cigar lighter socket hooked to the battery before ordering a direct wire harness for the Escort. The night before leaving for CFO I decide to hook the new connection up. I somehow let the bolt for the negative side drop down below the fuse blocks. It's 10:30 at night, the bolt has disappeared into an inaccessible area in the bowels of the bike, I can't figure out how to get all the body work off, the auto parts store is closed, and I have to leave early in the morning to meet Airboss for the ride up to LaCrosse. I'm discussing with my wife about getting to the auto parts store at 07:30 when they open to see if they have the right size bolt. Then I remember I never throw anything away. I go back out to the garage and pull the parts drawer with all the left over bolts from 40+ years of dicking around with motorcycles. The first one I see that looks close to the size I need fits the battery.

I figure I don't need to hook the cigar lighter socket back up so I just hook the new harness for the Escort to the battery. The next day just after riding two hours to meet Karl the GPS announces that its internal battery is about to die. I forgot the GPS power connection was spliced into the cigar lighter's wires. Doh!

Time to buy an accessory fuse box.

 

[RossKean]

Not sure why leaving the jumper cables on during starting would blow a fuse?

 

[Bustanut joker]

Thinking the same thing Ross.....Did he unhook from the car first and let the cables short?

 

[timk]

I put studs in my batt posts, makes hookups a lot easier when you have nultiple wires to hook up.

 

[jgeier]

I'm not sure why it did, but it did. Next time I'll be sure to take the jumper cables off.

 

[luvtoride]

Was the car running when you were jumping your bike? That's the only reason that I'd figure the fuse would blow. I "think" that if the fuse didn't blow while jumping from a running car will screw your electronics (aka letting the smoke out).

I just jumped my bike from an un-running auto a few weeks ago with absolutely no issues.

& good luck with your nuts, man.

 

[Full House]

If you see the Yuasa vender at a rally, ask them for a few extra bolt kits. They usually have handfuls of the pks. I keep spare pack in the tool kit just in case.

 

[jgeier]

No, luvtoride it wasn't running. And thanks for the concern over my nuts.

 

[weekend rider]

Just think about how many starting amps a car or truck takes to turn over and than start. Some cars and trucks need 450 cranking amps to turn over and many require more. So there is all that potential energy being sent to a battery and a electrical system that does not require that much energy to crank over so for safety requirements that is why that fuse is there for situations like that, to protect against erros like that.....

 

[RossKean]

Just think about how many starting amps a car or truck takes to turn over and than start. Some cars and trucks need 450 cranking amps to turn over and many require more. So there is all that potential energy being sent to a battery and a electrical system that does not require that much energy to crank over so for safety requirements that is why that fuse is there for situations like that, to protect against erros like that.....

Ohm's Law states V=IR. So for a given resistance "R", the current "I" flowing through a simple resistive circuit is directly proportional to the applied voltage "V". A battery that can put out 500 or even 1000 amperes (CCA) or one with a 60 ampere-hour capacity will provide the same number of amps to the Feejers starting circuit as its own wimpy battery.

Couple of notes:

1) Due to internal resistance, a lead-acid battery's voltage will drop as current is drawn from it. The amount of voltage drop depends on the amount of current draw and the condition of the battery. A higher capacity battery with high CCA will experience less voltage drop than the FJR battery when drawing a heavy load so, in effect, it may supply some more current. A dying starter has the symptom of drawing a very high current which draws down the voltage of the battery. If it COULD maintain its initial 13.8V, the excessive current might pop the fuse. A blown fuse due to a faulty starting circuit is more likely if using a very high capacity battery since its voltage will not drop as much as excessive current is drawn. This is not a "normal" condition.

2) Starting the bike using a RUNNING car could make a fuse failure more likely because you have both a high-current-capacity source AND a higher voltage (14.2V+). Higher voltage means higher current through a fixed resistance.

A higher capacity current source will only be a problem with respect to blowing fuses if there is a fault with the starting circuit!

Ross

 

[ionbeam]

Just think about how many starting amps a car or truck takes to turn over and than start...so for safety requirements that is why that fuse is there for situations like that...

Actually, the way the starting system is setup there is no fuse between the battery, starter relay and starter motor.

8 is the battery

9 is the ABS Motor Fuse

10 is the starter relay

11 is the starter motor

When relay 10 is turned by via the starter button power passes directly from the battery, through the starter relay contacts and right to the starter motor.

5 is the main fuel injection fuse

3 is the stator

2 is the voltage regulator/rectifier

1 is the ignition switch

60 is the headlight relay

6 fuse is the backup fuse

7 fuse is the main fuse