There must be an easier way

[ShinyPartsUp]

Dear Mr. Shade tree Mechanic:

I couldn't sleep.

Aha! I say, "I will go out to the KLR650 sitting on my new Sears moto jack, and install the pigtails for my battery tender onto the stock battery!" Easy Peasy. Tiny project among several I want to do.

Side panel and seat come off easy. I had to loosen the battery holder to get at the red terminal, but I slide the red pigtail on the red booted terminal. PIA! I fiddle, I bend the end of the pigtail to sit sorta flush. Push the little nut out of alignment -- put it back. Get the bolt through the harness connector, through the pigtail and into the little hole. Finally it catches on the threads of the nut beneath and snugs up tight. OK! :dance:

I go to the black terminal and try the same thing. :wacko: No matter what I do, after 25 minutes of fiddling and diddling, I can snug up the nut alone with the little bolt, snug up the harness cable, or snug up the black pigtail for the tender. But I cannot get the bolt to thread onto the nut with both the harness cable AND the pigtail wire. :ermm: I take a break :drag:

I cough because I don't smoke.

I try again after a few and there is no love. I did not strip anything.

Is there a shade tree mechanic trick to get these mated up I don't know about? Seems like it should be easy enough. :glare:

Signed,

Can't get my bolt in the hole

 

[mscott]

Shove a little something under the nut to raise it a little in it's slot. A couple of tooth pics or something non conductive.

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

Shove a little something under the nut to raise it a little in it's slot. A couple of tooth pics or something non conductive.

I tried some paper long enough I could slide it out after... didn't work. I'll look for some toothpicks or such, might work due to greater thickness. Thanks. Nice to know I might have been on the right track....

 

[user 213]

If that doesn't work, go get a slightly longer bolt. Not too much longer or it will go into the battery case and do bad things.

'course, you could have just used Posi-Taps instead and avoided this whole mess.

 

[Bustanut joker]

With all the innuendo suggested to this point, this thread just screams for some love. But me feeble brain has yet to awake :blink:

Lucky bastage.

:jester:

 

[Geezer]

Anything that will act as a spring to hold up the nut will do the job for you. Let's see, maybe an actual spring. B) I have seen some batteries that come with a spring attached to the underside of the nut. I wish I had saved those nuts because I haven't seen it in a while. A piece of sponge or other compressible material will also work fine.

 

[Fred W]

I insert a piece of foam weatherstripping under the battery nut.

It will hold it up to get the threads started and then squish out of the way as the bolt extends down into it.

Sticky side will keep it in place for ya.

 

[Duezzer]

Do a splice

Get a longer bolt

or

Give up

 

[bramfrank]

I lust wedge a small block of foam rubber between the nut and the body of the battery. Works great.

 

[Zorlac]

I lust wedge a small block of foam rubber between the nut and the body of the battery. Works great.

I must admit, that conjures up interesting possibilities. :blink:

 

[FJRPierre]

i slip a plastic zip tie underneath and connect it. this allows you to pull up on te nut to get it to engage

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

Good ideas, and I bet one of them works. I'll try one or two of these ideas, starting with the easiest this evening and report back.

Busta -- thank you!

Geezer, I think I've seen pictures of Odyssey batteries with the springs, and now I know why they have them.

OC, time to buy some posi-locks for the next time....

Thank you shade tree mechanics!

Next thing ya know Howie will be asking for my advice. NOT! :lol:

 

[slapnpop]

I put a small piece of silicone tubing under the nut any time I install a new battery. It won't degrade, isn't conductive, and acts like a spring.

 

[dcarver]

Anything that will act as a spring to hold up the BustaNut will do the job for you.

Fixed it for yah!

 

[Old Michael]

Mike, you need to sell that freaking Kawasaki, and get back to your man bike.

These frustrations are wearing you down.

You're fading...........like the Red Sox.

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

Mike, you need to sell that freaking Kawasaki, and get back to your man bike.These frustrations are wearing you down.

You're fading...........like the Red Sox.

My wife just asked what I was laughing out loud about.

Michael, you have no idea how much I needed that laugh at this moment in this day of hell. Without distracting too much (It's my thread so I'll digress for just a moment), I got the news that my best friend, a man I call brother and love as much as a man can love another (without being really into it) is very close to dieing, and I better visit him again before he is incoherent from the cancer and meds. I've been watching him fade away, and seriously bummed since getting home and hearing from his wife. Enough of that...

I don't know why I would find a putdown of the BoSox as funny, but your timing was as good as your eye with a camera. Thanks man.

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

Back on topic. For those of you on the edge of your beds tonight wondering how the fat fudger is making out with his battery... [bustanut and OM that has lots of potential for rib-digging fun]

I went in the garage full of ideas. The toothpicks are up in the kitchen. Don't feel like explaining to the wife why I want a couple toothpicks....

hmmm, wonder if any of that plastic tubing from the kid's old aquarium is around. Nope. <<sigh>>

No bolts of the right size in my "It might come in handy someday" containers.

I don't want to use a spring... they bounce around after popping out of fat fingers. I know me.

AHAH! Some old 1/4 inch strip insulation foam-sticky-on-one-side stuff. I KNEW that piece a couple inches long would come in handy... and after only four years of sitting in the drawer.

Pull out the nut with the magnet on a stick trick, push the small piece of insulation in. Ahhh... snag, can't get the nut in the hole (are you listening Bust )... not to worry! Push the stuff down with a T-handled allen wrench. Voilà, the nut is in snug and tight... what was THAT? Uh Ohh... :blink: one small ding of metal on metal noise. Then silence....

The bolt WAS right there dangling from the cable connector thingy. It isn't now. :dribble: On the hands and knees, looking, I sound silly whispering, "here bolty bolty bolty..." Think Mike. I put the shop light on the floor for an oblique angle and listen to my vertebrae make strange noises as I look along the floor for a shadow. Nothing. :dntknw: :***:

I sit on my little shop stool thinking La Poderosa Diabla is earning her name :devilsmiley:

Ah well, I'll pull the battery, undo the one nut I actually have connected and get two a bit longer at the hardware store on my lunch break tomorrow. Pisser. :dirol: I'm proud of myself for not swearing. As I am contemplating the "fun" of doing maintenance on a bike, I see a glint. There! by the garage door...is it? No. a washer. Wonder where that is supposed to go?

But wait, What do I see? (As the old song goes). Is it? It is! Hallelujah! My bolt!!! I found my bolt ! (ready with a remark OM?)

I put in the bolt and it snugs up the first time! Hope that insulation doesn't burn... nahhh. :huh: Time to button her up!, uhhhh wait. Murphy's Law. Better test it. Turn the ignition and Putt Putt Putt... it doesn't VROOOM (she is a girl). OK, now the pigtails to the battery tender [get your mind out of the kinky gutter gentlemen and ladies].... Red solid light! I saw the light! Lordy, Lordy~~~ :guitar: I feel like I'm at a folk mass after years of Latin masses... elated.

Well, satisfied.

 

[Fred W]

Yeah, that's all good.

But did you do anything to help the Red Sox? :angry:

 

[Grumpy]

Yeah, that's all good. But did you do anything to help the Red Sox? :angry:

Naw, he was busy trying to help the president!