Vertical Staab battery terminals: modification?

[qwerty123]

Hi all,

I've recently purchased a Staab UB12220-V as mentioned in the sticky. But I'm finding attaching the battery leads to it to be a pain in the butt. The leads are stiff and don't want to twist vertical (the previous battery attached with the ring in the horizontal plane), the little tiny nuts and bolts are, well, tiny and they require two 8mm wrenches to effectively tighten. My old battery just required a screwdriver!

Has anyone got a suggestion for how to make this easier? I do remove the battery fairly frequently in marginal riding season here in New England (i.e., it's going to be below freezing this week, but next week could be 50*F, so I'll remove it just for now...).

Thanks much!

[wilcom]

Has anyone got a suggestion for how to make this easier?

You didn't save the screw and nuts from the old battery to reuse evidently. I'd just head to the hardware store and get a screw and nut that will be easier to take off.

Your battery tabs are oriented the same as mine. I don't live in the cold weather so I only take batteries out when the go dead and need replacing, so no help there. My AGM batteries don't lose much voltage setting in the bile like a slosh battery

[BPT]

The holes on those terminals are a smaller diameter. I discovered this after thinking it was no big deal that the tiny bag of nuts and bolts went flying and figured no big deal, I'll use the old ones.
Got to where I was going that day, changed the battery and realized I didn't have hardware that would fit.
Unlike friendly throttle perch wedges, these never reappeared.....

[BPT]

And, sorry. Qwerty. I don't have anything better than what Wilcom suggested for a solution. Right now I've got a random selection of different sized nuts, bolts and washers that I found that day. ( I think it took 2 wrenches and a screw driver to get them tightend down).  I'm going to make that trip to the hardware store myself to get something more uniform.

On the plus side, I've had zero need to take that battery out since I installed it.

[qwerty123]

Thanks for the replies all, I'm sure I can cobble something together. Just switching to an Allen cap-head screw will mean I don't need two 8mms (or an 8mm and the adjustable...).

[mrclubike]

 Why do you need to remove the battery for cold weather

[Bob_Roller]

The only suggestion I can give, is to heat the cables with a hair drier and see if the insulation becomes a bit more pliable up a bit to where you can twist it back into shape .

There are replacement cables available if you need to replace them, lets face it they are over 30+ years old .

As long as you keep the battery fully charged, they will withstand sub-freezing temps with no problem .

A battery ' maintainer ' is a good way to keep the battery at top charge during periods when the bike not being used .

Keeping the battery cold, will extend it's life, the chemical reaction in the battery is reduced in low temps .

I live in a low desert ( average temps for 6 months of the year, exceed 105 F. get up to 120 F in the shade . ), heat kills batteries here usually in less than three years .

I've got a double battery change on the oilhead this weekend, killed the engine at a stop light and wasn't sure I could get it started !!!

The batteries are 30 months old .

A couple of links for battery cables .

http://www.motoelekt.com/starter.htm

http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/Battery-Cable-Kit-BMW-R-Airhead-BCK-475473-p/bck-475473.htm

[Justin B.]

I re-drilled the holes in the battery terminals and used 6mm hardware.  Try the hair dryer/heat gun per Bob's suggestion.  I, fortunately, did not have any problems on any of ours.  I think the Oddyssey was the same way and they sold an adapter kit (couple of angles) to reconfigure the terminals.

[BPT]

Like Bob Roller said, if your cables are original or very old it might be time to replace them anyway while your doing this.  The links he posted are both known for good stuff but another suggestion would be to check locally.

I'm not sure if it's the norm but I had a ground cable made at a local electrical supply for the cost of a foot of cable and the fittings. They crimped and shrink wrapped for free.

You'll have fresh wire which is good any way. But it will also be more bendy. And if you think your bends are still going to be too tight, an electrical place should have a 90 degree connector.

[Bob_Roller]

I have heard that NAPA auto parts stores, at least at one time, could make custom battery cables .

Don't know if this is the case or not today .

About 7 years ago, I replaced the negative battery cable with a premade cable from an auto parts store .

I moved the grounding, or earthing point from the speedometer cable area on the transmission, to the lower right engine to transmission bolt . 

I measured what length I needed, it was 30 inches, the cables closest, were 28 inches and 32 inches .

I installed the 32 inch cable, the holes for bolts were not the correct size way too large, so I altered some large area washers to make it work .

[qwerty123]

Just wanted to close the loop here guys. It does turn out that you can buy 90* adapters (I found them via part number from STAAB / Gruber on Amazon), but they still used the silly tiny little bolts, so I made something myself out of copper bar tapped to hold the screws:

[qwerty123]

Oh, and I did go ahead and replace the battery cables too.