Hello, old friend (loose battery cable)

Rgbeard

Rgbeard

En-Route
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
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4,343
Location
Phoenix, AZ and Ensenada, Mexico
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Display name:
rgbeard
Here at the beachhouse where I keep my Gixxer, it’s a cobblestone road before the highway. (1/10 mile, or so)

On my way to the highway the bike died as I clutched-in to wait for traffic.

Enjoyed some twisty roads, and then , just to see how it’s doing without a load at the wheels, I clutched-in at appx 60mph in top gear. A few seconds at idle, then the red light.

I released the clutch, it proceeded nicely and I pointed it home, before an intermittent issue became permanent.

All this felt familiar. Several years ago, it was a loose battery terminal. I fixed it roadside halfway between Ensenada and San Felipe. (Translation: nowhere)

I got the bike parked at home. Removed the seat. There it is. My old friend, loose terminal. Tightened with three full turns.

Tomorrow: rape and pillage the roads of rural Baja!
 
I, too, have suffered this. Have fun!
 
IMG_3181 (1).JPG

Well check this out. I get up at zero dark forty in the morning to drive to Redwood City to work out at the gym before a 9:00 a.m. meeting in Pescadero. It's way out on the coast and there is nothing around it. I go to start the 'splorer after my workout at the gym parking lot in Redwood City (you can't just leave at six or seven and expect to get to a Bay Area destination by nine) and it won't start.

I open the hood. Battery is fine. The connection to the positive is SO CORRODED it literally split, I mean split, the connector in two. No way in hell of salvaging that.

I'm in a bad place. Well I'm in a good place, but at a bad time. There are NO mechanics working at six or seven or whenever I'm done. But I put my thinking cap on.

Vice Grips. Those fit the category where WD40 is not the solution and duct tape won't quite get it done. Now... mind you, there is some sort of store-mart thing next to the gym. And they have nothing that will work. I'm looking for some, clampy, tightning, sort of thing. Dammit, I need some vice grips.

Well, Thank you Jose, and thank you for working so early in the morning at the gym. Despite my poor Spanish and his poor English, I am able to convey that I need locking (vice grip) pliers or I will be stranded and make his boss's life hell like a Karen on an overdose of Go Girl energy drinks. Actually I was more diplomatic than that and he did hook this brotha up. Or Hermano. Again.

It worked. I just mashed the remaining battery cable against the terminal with the vice grips. Now, I'm not stupid. Well okay, I'm not quite as stupid as I seem. I do realize I have a limited amount of starts. I can't be starting and stopping this thing all day.

Exactly... mmm... four starts later, including lunch, I got back to the office and the vice grips were pretty fried and the terminal was starting to melt. But whatever, it's a company vehicle and it's the company's problem. I just took another car home, and a couple days later got my 'splorer back with a fresh battery cable.

Edit: Jose was the facilities maintenance guy for the gym. Yes I sent him a fresh pair of Vice Grips in the mail. Or rather the office did.
 
As a young driver I once used a hose clamp to hold the battery cable to the battery post...lasted about 3 months. They don't build hose clamps like the used to...
 
I have a friend from jr Hi. He lived on a farm in Felida. His old 49 Ford truck......the fuel pump broke and he rigged the gas to go through the windshield washer pump. You know......the old kind that you pump with your foot!

washer-pump-foot-operated-brazil-main-12039-12039.jpg
 
Today's pillage of the countryside was successful. I'm adding this to my quarterly checks on this bike, and am considering blue locktite on the screw.
 
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I don't find riding videos really worth watching. But just in case you're bored, here's from this afternoon.

This is leaving San Miguel/Ensenada, and heading out towards the edge of Baja's Guadalupe Valley.

I suck at YooToobs.

 
Sac Arrow said:
View attachment 108376

Well check this out. I get up at zero dark forty in the morning to drive to Redwood City to work out at the gym before a 9:00 a.m. meeting in Pescadero. It's way out on the coast and there is nothing around it. I go to start the 'splorer after my workout at the gym parking lot in Redwood City (you can't just leave at six or seven and expect to get to a Bay Area destination by nine) and it won't start.

I open the hood. Battery is fine. The connection to the positive is SO CORRODED it literally split, I mean split, the connector in two. No way in hell of salvaging that.

I'm in a bad place. Well I'm in a good place, but at a bad time. There are NO mechanics working at six or seven or whenever I'm done. But I put my thinking cap on.

Vice Grips. Those fit the category where WD40 is not the solution and duct tape won't quite get it done. Now... mind you, there is some sort of store-mart thing next to the gym. And they have nothing that will work. I'm looking for some, clampy, tightning, sort of thing. Dammit, I need some vice grips.

Well, Thank you Jose, and thank you for working so early in the morning at the gym. Despite my poor Spanish and his poor English, I am able to convey that I need locking (vice grip) pliers or I will be stranded and make his boss's life hell like a Karen on an overdose of Go Girl energy drinks. Actually I was more diplomatic than that and he did hook this brotha up. Or Hermano. Again.

It worked. I just mashed the remaining battery cable against the terminal with the vice grips. Now, I'm not stupid. Well okay, I'm not quite as stupid as I seem. I do realize I have a limited amount of starts. I can't be starting and stopping this thing all day.

Exactly... mmm... four starts later, including lunch, I got back to the office and the vice grips were pretty fried and the terminal was starting to melt. But whatever, it's a company vehicle and it's the company's problem. I just took another car home, and a couple days later got my 'splorer back with a fresh battery cable.

Edit: Jose was the facilities maintenance guy for the gym. Yes I sent him a fresh pair of Vice Grips in the mail. Or rather the office did.
Click to expand...

Which gym? My gym is in Redwood City.
 
RudyP said:
Ah. Not the same place
Click to expand...

Gotta tell you, night and day difference between Bay Area 24 Hour Fitness's and others. They had towel service, granite walled shower stalls with doors, and 30 Precor AMT elliptical machines. 25 of which were broken.
 
Goop.
I put a small dab of Goop along one side of the nut to keep it from turning.
 
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