Barnyard/Shade Tree Battery Job

[Ulrich]

Howdy ... time for another Shade Tree fix it job ... this time the battery. So my battery is now 5 years old (20 000) miles and is getting noticeably soggy ... when it is cold out she barely starts, so time for a new one.
I am really not much a fan of Lithium and such batteries ... I stick with AGM.
BMW OEM price $360.77 ... WTF???? ... that must be one special lead acid battery! ... so I looked around and found an AGM battery with the same dimensions and electrical specs on Amazon ... for $59 !!!! Rated for ATVs so it should handle vibrations



Must not be made by Yuasa in China LOL



No matter, for 1/6th of the price of a BMW battery I sure as hell will give it a whirl!

Anyway .. I am sure you can do that on the kick (jiffy) stand, but i prefer the wheel chock ... and while I am at it,
I always have the worry breaking off the little pegs that hold the side covers so I use a hook I had bend many years ago
covered with a small fuel line to pull them out.



The covers come out nice and straight .. piece of cake
So cover #1 off




And the inner cover off as well



... I don't know how many pics can be in one post ... so I will break it up ... to be continued

 

[Ulrich]

... continued

Perfect match the old and the new battery ... that should be easy!



Somebody on this forum (Bettie12 Battery Strap )had posted the idea of a strap around the new battery ...
... what a glorious, phenomenal idea !!!
I went a different direction with my strap ... but thank you so much for suggesting that!!
Considering the bitch of I time I had pulling the old battery out ... that will be a cinch next time!!

Made a strap and tacked it on with a bit of hot glue



Slid right in ... and the strap even helped a bit when I hooked the wires back up ... it was so easy to move the battery in and out to get
the right position



Piece of cake ... took me about an hour and 15 minutes .. and that is with making the strap

Covers back on and she started like a dream ...
... I will keep you all posted how long this battery will live ... even if it is only half the time of the OEM
I made a hell of a bargain