How the heck do I use this battery charger?

[lonesoldier84]

Well I was just going to "Super Tech Auto" this thing, but after reading the page and a half of warnings I think I should ask first before I burn my house down overnight.

I will be pulling the battery off my R1 and bringing it inside the house to charge on a new battery charger I bought. But I am not sure how to use this thing. What do I connect to what?



This will plug into the wall.

This is what the other end of that cable looks like:

Should I just snap it into the end of this one?

If so, what the hell do I do with this one? It's got a sort of fuse in the middle of it or something:

 

[lonesoldier84]

P.S. Here is a picture of me making posts:

(this will be the first of quite a few in the coming months....a lot of work to do and this time I actually HAVE to do it myself because I'm poor)

 

[jsw4178]

plug them together and use the clamps, Red on positive side and black on negative. The other connector attaches to you battery so you can charge it without removing it or lifting the tank.

 

[WIyamirider]

Battery Tender Jr. Correct?

If so, then yes, plug the connector coming from the charger into the plug with the red/black alligator clips. Hook the leads onto the battery, and then plug it into the wall. That's all there is to it. There's a lot of warnings because it is a battery charger, the company is just trying to cover every conceivable way that their product could be mis-used so they aren't responsible when someone does something dumb and gets a face full of battery acid.

Red lead to positive, black to negative, connect the cable to the charger, plug it into the wall and let it do its thing until the next riding season. I've charged my batteries in my house, and my parents house, with no problems at all. Just put it somewhere that it can't get knocked over or curious fingers can't get to the terminals.

The other cable is for a "permanent" type connection to your battery. You attach the red ring with the fuse to the positive post, black ring to the negative. Then run the connector to an easily accessible spot. This way you can charge the battery without removing it from the vehicle (Useful on bikes like the FZ6 where the battery isn't in a real accessible spot).

I like my Battery Tender Jr. a lot. It's simple to use, and will charge a dead battery pretty quickly considering the size of the charger.

 

[Def]

Perfect description WIyamirider! Good luck Lone...should be easy now....hmmmm you are your avatar!

 

[Shamus McFeeley]

That fuse is important, don't forget to check it if for some reason the battery charger is not working.

 

[lonesoldier84]

Yuasa Automatic 12 Volt Battery Charger - Street Bike - Motorcycle Superstore

That one.

And ahh, I see. I thought I was supposed to use both the connector types at the same time somehow.

Ok, so the little rings are for permanent connection to bike without removing battery from bike, and the one with the "alligator clips" is for use after removing battery or temporary connection?

I ask because I just tried and failed to remove the battery from the bike. I don't know if the screws were just tightened too much by the previous owner or if it's because its so cold they contracted or something. But they won't budge and I don't want to strip the screws.

So can I just charge the battery where it is in the bike? The warnings say in caps lock and bold "NEVER charge a frozen battery"....well it's been about ~20-30 below in celcius for the past month or so and the bikes in an unheated garage.

Can I just charge the battery without removing it from the bike? If so can I use the alligator clips? That way I don't have to undo the extremely tight screws.

 

[Motogiro]

Lone,
If the battery has voltage it's prolly not frozen. Hook up the charger.

Some automatic chargers also have a reverse polarity sensor that stops the charger and battery from seeing each other. I found this out when a friend of mine hooked his backwards on his Harley. Didn't hurt anything. But then how could to tell was something was broken on a Harley when everything's broken on it already! J/k! Hahaha! Had to for my Harley buds! :Flip:

 

[FB400]

OP:
you should be able to just hook up the alligator clips, plug it in and leave it.

Can I ask though what screws are you talking about? The bolts that hold the battery cables on? It's been awhile since I was under the tank but from what I recall those are the only thing tethering the battery to the bike. If a phillips screwdriver doesn't give you enough torque you should be able to get a wrench on the screw. From what I recall a 10mm should work.

 

[WIyamirider]

Yuasa Automatic 12 Volt Battery Charger - Street Bike - Motorcycle Superstore

That one.

I was close. Works the same though.

I ask because I just tried and failed to remove the battery from the bike. I don't know if the screws were just tightened too much by the previous owner or if it's because its so cold they contracted or something. But they won't budge and I don't want to strip the screws.

The screws can be difficult to remove. They seem to be made from very soft material, no matter who the manufacturer is. They should be what I'll call a hex-screw, meaning you should be able to use a socket to remove them as well as a screwdriver. If they're just regular screws, I'd recommend an impact driver to remove them without stripping.

The warnings say in caps lock and bold "NEVER charge a frozen battery"....well it's been about ~20-30 below in celcius for the past month or so and the bikes in an unheated garage.

It'll charge. Your battery won't be frozen at those temps. My Yamaha snowmobile has a battery and it's started and held a charge after being outside all night in -20 F temps.

Can I just charge the battery without removing it from the bike? If so can I use the alligator clips? That way I don't have to undo the extremely tight screws.

You sure can. There is no difference in using the alligator clips vs. the ring terminals. The point of the ring terminals is to charge the battery without having to unbolt the leads and remove it from the bike, so hooking the alligator clips to the battery with the leads still connected would be no different.

 

[lonesoldier84]

Thanks!

Well, I still can't figure the bloody thing out. There is a light that is supposed to come on when the system is "connected properly and charging the battery". That light is not coming on. I have clipped the alligator clips to the top of the screws which are screwed into the + and - regions of the battery. Even when I clip the clips to the other metal areas on there that light still won't light up.

I'm either doing it wrong or that light isn't supposed to come on until the battery has some juice in it.

I'm going to bed. If it's charging, then great. If not then I have no idea why it wouldn't be. I hope I don't burn the house down with me in it as I sleep.



And thanks again all. My head is thick as a block, I know.



edit: from the service manual:

When charging a battery, be sure to
remove it from the vehicle. (If charging
has to be done with the battery mounted
on the vehicle, disconnect the negative
battery lead from the battery terminal.)

I'm just going to try to get the battery out again tomorrow. Going to disconnect the charger tonight. That "charging" light isn't coming on anyway. Probably not even doing anything.

 

[youngy]

did you check that fuse that was mentioned earlier?

 

[RJ2112]

AC Plug with wall wart (and fuse) --> >--quick disconnect --> Alligator clips-- > battery terminals.

OR

AC Plug with wall wart (and fuse) --> >--quick disconnect --> permanent mount rings-- > battery terminals.

Obviously, Red clamp on positive terminal, right?

 

[lonesoldier84]

So I need to clamp on the terminals? I can't just clamp on to metal things connected to the terminals? Like the screw head or metal bracket the screw is in?


And the fuse is only on the ring-connector side, not the alligator clip side.

 

[Evitzee]

You should have a red indicator when you plug it in which will eventually turn green when the battery enters the float mode. It's a foolproof connection as long as the clamps are making good contact, jiggle the clamps to ensure a good contact. Clamping it to the connectors attached to the battery cables is fine. Are you sure you are connecting the charger to a live outlet? Perhaps the circuit breaker has tripped.

 

[lonesoldier84]

I jiggled like I had never jiggled before. and i connected it to anything i could connect it to without removing those screws and the metal bracket type things they are screwed into.

The outlet is working because the light showing "power" is on (on the adapter for the battery charger plugged into the wall). The light indicating "charging" is not coming on.

 

[WIyamirider]

Hooray for electrical gremlins! They always seem to show up at the most in-opportune times, don't they?

I found the instruction manual for your charger. You weren't kidding about the safety warnings...sheesh. This really isn't all the great of an instruction manual either. With the grammatical errors and run-on sentences, it's hard to follow what they're trying to say. I did find this:

PROTECTION DEVICES AND MEASURES
9.1 OVERLOAD PROTECTION
The charger employs the use of a ‘Solid State Circuit
Interrupter’ that opens under severe overload. This
condition may occur if attempting to charge any severely
discharged or heavily sulfated battery. Once the Interrupter
opens, the charger will stop charging for a short period and
then resume charging automatically and the yellow. L.E.D.
will be OFF, until resume charging. Overloading could be
due to an external load, remove the load condition prior to
attempting to recharge the battery.

and this:

9.2 REVERSE BATTERY / OVERLOAD CONDITION
The charger has reverse battery and short circuit protection.
If a reverse battery condition exists (White L.E.D. will turn
RED, only, while output leads are connected backwards),
simply unplug charger from AC power and properly
remake the connections as described in this manual.

So, it seems that the only way the charger won't work is if the leads are hooked up backwards, or the battery won't take a charge properly. So if the leads are hooked up red to +, black to -, then it would seem like there's something the charger doesn't like about the battery.

Maybe the cold is affecting the battery. You should be able to get a wrench or socket on the terminal bolts to crack them loose and get it into the house. If it charges after its warmed up, it's probably time to get a new one.

Do you have another battery that you know is good that you could try? There doesn't seem to be a capacity limit for the charger, so you could hook it up to your car battery and see if it will switch into charging mode. If it doesn't work on a different battery, it may be a defective charger.

 

[Motogiro]

Hooray for electrical gremlins! They always seem to show up at the most in-opportune times, don't they?

Do you have another battery that you know is good that you could try? There doesn't seem to be a capacity limit for the charger, so you could hook it up to your car battery and see if it will switch into charging mode. If it doesn't work on a different battery, it may be a defective charger.

Agree if you can hook it to your car battery it should show the charge/maint. light.
Could be the battery is so cold and discharged the electrolyte has begun to freeze and it looks like you connected it to a piece of wood. The charger might not recognize it.

Maybe pull the battery and let it come to room temp. Hook up the charger and see what happens.
Do you have a voltmeter? Can you see if the battery is dead?

 

[lonesoldier84]

Cool. Thanks guys. I tried again today and still nothing I'm doing is doing anything.

I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of the instructions they are insanely complex and written in a needlessly complicated manner. And yeah, the safety warnings made me think if I touched my battery wrong it would burn my house down and rip my face off. Lol.

I am going to do just that.....bring the battery inside. I have to find a way to undo those damned screws though. There is no way I can undo them and if I keep trying I am just going to strip the hell out of them.

I'll give it another go when I get the battery inside.

Thanks for the follow up gentlemen. It is much appreciated. I am waiting on getting this battery charged or replaced so I can troubleshoot why it died. I'm sure the battery is just crap but I did want to troubleshoot the Stator, Regulator/Rectifier just so I can be sure the only thing wrong with the bike is in fact the battery.

Crazy thing is, I have done ZERO maintenance of any kind on the FZ6 battery and it has sat inside, outside, and upside down through the winters. It starts at the drop of a dime, every time.

That thing is bloody bulletproof.

FZ6 = Olga. Stout polish woman. Feed her beans and she will smile with her toothless grin.
R1 = Yvette. French Little-Miss-Thing with a taste for caviar.

 

[WIyamirider]

The battery you're having troubles with is out of the R1, right? Were you experiencing problems with the battery before you put it away for the winter?

Just curious what prompted the battery charger for the R1, but not the FZ6.