buying an affordable 'generic' battery, '81 kz650

if you are dumb like me and few here are as......i use this little harbor freight charger that has a series of lights to to tell if it is a bad bat...low charge or,green light,done charging.....maybe i did charge it for a few hrs but the light was on....green soon.....i think...foggy....cool...score...gotta hate wal mart...gotta love wal mart...

trianglelaguna wrote:

if you are dumb like me and few here are as......i use this little harbor freight charger that has a series of lights to to tell if it is a bad bat...low charge or,green light,done charging.....maybe i did charge it for a few hrs but the light was on....green soon.....i think...foggy....cool...score...gotta hate wal mart...gotta love wal mart...

well the walmart idea worked well for me
I used to spend $70 or more on a Yuasa
no more. No need to.

My 1a and 1.5a chargers are both 'Schumacher' but I like the sound of that HF charger with indicator lights, demystifies the 'is it a bad battery' issue.
I just spent a day on the DieHard battery that came with my '81 Kz650 and the best it could do was 11.6volts. Had I known I wouldn't have wasted that time on it. Looked okay on the outside but the plates must be bad on the inside.

I will look for one next time I go to HF, thanks.
Meanwhile the 1.5a is now hooked up to the EverStart for couple-three hours.

ive had good luck with standard battery co,if you have one locally.

I've set all of mine up with a 1.5 amp Schmacher and haven't had any issues with them

Motorcycle Consumer News - The Care and Feeding of Your Pet Battery
Motorcycle Consumer News - The Care and Feeding of Your Pet Battery

The cool thing about this 1.5amp Schumacher charger is -- it has a red light that comes on that says 'Charged' so you know your done.

Plus the package says 'fully automatic' so I take that to mean when the red light comes on it stops charging the battery because it automatically knows it is done and shuts off.

Then I read the voltage on the battery and it read 12.84 volts READY TO GO.

Now I just put the last coat of Dupli-Color 'satin' black on the handlebars (they were an incredible glossy white color when I started)


Tomorrow I will put the handlebars back on and install the battery and jump the battery '+' to the coils as per Mr. Patton then we shall see.

My '81 Kz650 CSR has 17,283 miles on the clock. Today I gave it a bath and used the wire toothbrush and triple-zero steel wool on the surface rust ready for the show.

The Shumacher also has a float mode that will simulate a charging system and maintain the battery at a ready state like a battery tender.

If not already done, would assure integrity of ground connection where negative battery cable attaches to the engine.

And also assure good ground wire (black/yellow) connection from the igniter (if so equipped).

Good Fortune!

Patton wrote:

If not already done, would assure integrity of ground connection where negative battery cable attaches to the engine.

And also assure good ground wire (black/yellow) connection from the igniter (if so equipped).

Good Fortune!

Will do, thanks for the reminder, really looking forward to tomorrow to try to fire this one up. The prior owner already did the carbs so the bike should fire. I'm going to check the ground straps for the battery and the igniter first thing in the AM before installing the battery.

I think I'll mosey over to kawasaki.com right now and check the electrical parts diagrams to see if this one has an igniter -- I haven't checked behind the points cover yet to see if this '81 Kz650 came with electronic ignition. My '79 is still points and condenser.

EDIT: Well I just found the 1981 Kz650 H model wiring diagram here on the site under the 'KZ Information' tab. Yep my '81 does have an igniter, it has electronic ignition. Looks like either on the '81 or the '80 model, Kaw stopped putting points and condenser on the 650 line.