Neat battery trick

[jeswinehart]

I replaced the battery in wife's 4×4 Polaris quad and struggled alot getting the little nut held up to start the bolt to hold clamps in place. Same silly problem I have had on many trikes and other atv's that takes batterys.
Upon inspection of the old battery I see where the one man cycle shop guy uptown had put a small peice of rubber tubing under the nut to hold it up as well as secure it so it didn't fall out while hooking up cables. NEAT idea !!!
I only dropped that nut sevral times in the snow installing the new gel battery ,,,,, miserable dam things anyway so thought I'd share a trick I just learned today.
john

[yaegerb]

I replaced the battery in wife's 4×4 Polaris quad and struggled alot getting the little bolt held up to start the bolt to hold clamps in place. Same silly problem I have had on many trikes and other atv's that takes batterys.
Upon inspection of the old battery I see where the one man cycle shop guy uptown had put a small peice of rubber tubing under the nut to hold it up as well as secure it so it didn't fall out while hooking up cables. NEAT idea !!!
I only dropped that nut sevral times in the snow installing the new gel battery ,,,,, miserable dam things anyway so thought I'd share a trick I just learned today.
john

Funny, I am working on a customers quad and the exact same thing was happening to me. I am going to go and do that now....why didn't I think of that....brilliant!

Thanks John!

[Queef Chief]

This is a great idea. I've been cursing this exact situation for years, and wondered why the bolts couldn't have been two or three threads longer. I've never seen a battery where the bolts given would even come close to bottoming out.


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[sawgrass]

Brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

[Scootertrash]

Great idea!!

I've always just put a small flat blade screwdriver in there to hold it up. I like this idea better

[El Camexican]

I hate those square nuts. I would stick flat blade screwdrivers, and pieces of cable ties under them them to on occasion to try an catch a thread. Then one day in a fit of frustration I grabbed some hex nuts with the same thread as the square ones and with a little grinding made them just the right size that I could gently tap them into the slot until they were centered under the hole and they wouldn't move after that. Patent Pending.

[captainweezy]

Thanks John! They are a pain in the rear. I use ear plugs. Roll them up tight. Stick them under the nut and let them grow.

[redsox]

i use duct tape. little wad and stick it on the bottom of the nut.

[czac]

the real problem is... why do they use those damn terminals in the first place? why not just use one that goes on like a car, only make a smaller version of it? or hell, even just a threaded hole you can thread a bolt into? i lost many a nut fiddeling with those terminals, this trick should help. thanks!

[atctim]

I've been known to hold the nut up with the end of a zip tie. Works well and non-conductive.

[coolpool]

Sounds like a good sales pitch for Dragons Den! All good ideas for something as simple and agonizing at the same time.

[Merge_88]

I can't tell you how many times I've struggled with that exact problem! Thanks for the tip!

[atc300r]

I usually take a pair of pliers and sqweeze the post on the battery alittle so the nut fits tight at the top.But the piece of hose is a great idea.

[atc007]

Been doing this years, 300R, be careful squeezing these posts. I have seen many break, then you're sol. Of course these were mostly older batteries.

[tripledog]

I had the same problem while installing the battery on my Sportster. I wedged a piece of foam (a section from a used disposable brush worked well) behind the nut inside the terminal to hold the nut in place until the bolt's threads were engaged, and then simply pulled the foam out.

[RUNMEDOWN]

I grabbed some hex nuts with the same thread as the square ones and with a little grinding made them just the right size that I could gently tap them into the slot until they were centered under the hole and they wouldn't move after that. Patent Pending.
That is what I do. It takes some time but you don't have to risk loosing the tiny square nut.

[El Camexican]

the real problem is... why do they use those damn terminals in the first place? /// even just a threaded hole you can thread a bolt into? i lost many a nut fiddeling with those terminals

They do, but you can't thread lead worth a poop and brass costs a lot more.

https://shop.antigravitybatteries.com/productline/starter-batteries/small-case/

[czac]

Ahhh didn't think of the whole lead tapping thing... lol how do they do in car batteries? Actually my lawn mowers battery has thread in terminals too. Ill have to look at them i suspect its like a steel insert in lead or some c**p like that lol

[El Camexican]

Ahhh didn't think of the whole lead tapping thing... lol how do they do in car batteries? Actually my lawn mowers battery has thread in terminals too. Ill have to look at them i suspect its like a steel insert in lead or some c**p like that lol

I suspect 90% of the worlds population would either snap a bolt, or crack the housing of a battery with a threaded insert, cross thread a hole, or put a 3/8" bolt into a 10mm hole if given the chance.

So by putting round posts and frustrating square terminals on our batteries they limit the general population to simply cracking cheap C clamp connectors and resorting to sticking things under square nuts to connect them even though they would prefer that we just take our vehicles to the dealers ship to have this done.

If they didn't want that they would add a place for us to connect a small 12V power source to hook up to when we change batteries so that we don't loose our favorite radio stations and the Mercedes ML series wouldn't have the battery under the passenger seat made in a proprietary size that costs $300 bucks.

[czac]

Lol too true. I guess we can at least be thankful they use a square nut... can you imagine the confusion if they expected us to use a round nut in a square post? Lol

[redsox]

I suspect 90% of the worlds population would either snap a bolt, or crack the housing of a battery with a threaded insert, cross thread a hole, or put a 3/8" bolt into a 10mm hole if given the chance.

So by putting round posts and frustrating square terminals on our batteries they limit the general population to simply cracking cheap C clamp connectors and resorting to sticking things under square nuts to connect them even though they would prefer that we just take our vehicles to the dealers ship to have this done.

If they didn't want that they would add a place for us to connect a small 12V power source to hook up to when we change batteries so that we don't loose our favorite radio stations and the Mercedes ML series wouldn't have the battery under the passenger seat made in a proprietary size that costs $300 bucks.

my old man has a neat little contraption that you plug into the cigarette lighter that backfeeds the system when changing car batteries. runs on a 9v battery. no more reprogramming all your Jesus rock stations.