anybody know a good mechanic???

[erik79]

Anybody live in south jersey and knows a good bike mechanic????? I'm tryin to fix stuff and realize i'm in way over my head.

[steves]

What are you in over your head with?

[loudnlow7484]

How close are you to the Philadelphia area?

Rich at Maxxed Cycles in Lansdale, PA knows his oil cooled suzuki's. 215-855-2001. I don't know anybody over on the jersey side, though.

[erik79]

I'm pretty close to philadelphia, about 20 min. away

[steves]

So what are you working on?

[erik79]

Is there anything I should be careful of when I'm changing a battery?

[loudnlow7484]

don't drop a wrench across the posts. And when you're tightening the positive lead, don't let your wrench/ratchet touch anything (frame, battery box, etc). Make sure you don't get the polarity reversed.

[steves]

Dude, you keep saying that you are in over your head, but you aren't asking questions. Unless you happen to be sitting with a transmission in pieces at your feet, someone might be able to help guide you to the correct answer.

A good first step is to go to this thread and download the service manual for your ride.

http://www.katriders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13439&highlight=service+manual

I've gotten nothing short of the correct answer every time from the folks here, even when I think I'm over my head.

That said, if you think you need to take it to a pro, got any riding buddies? Chances are that they might know someone.

Failing that, take it to a dealership. It might be expensive, but it'll get fixed.

[kiba]

And when you're tightening the positive lead, don't let your wrench/ratchet touch anything (frame, battery box, etc).

Attach the positive before the negative and you won't have to worry about this...

/kiba

[The CyberPoet]

Is there anything I should be careful of when I'm changing a battery?

Yup.

For your model Kat:

The max safe continuous charge rate is 0.8 amps (aka 800 milliamps, or 800mA). While you can get away with a 1.0 amp-hour charger, using a 2 Amp-hour or larger charger is a good way to destroy the battery (overheating) and have a possible explosion. If you do have to use a larger battery charger for some reason, say like a traditional car charger, take the battery out of the bike, put it somewhere that if it explodes, the results won't hit anything you care about with battery acid (outdoors in the middle of a large back yard for example), and then charge it in 15 minutes "ON" followed by 45 minutes "OFF" (to cool down during the off-cycles) for a 2 amp-hour charger -- and shorter charge periods and longer cool-down periods for high-rated chargers.

The battery is sealed glass matt battery. This means there are no caps to remove and you never add liquids once the battery is filled the first time.

The battery can still off-gas hydrogen during the charging process, so keep it away from any spark or flame sources (don't set it next to your gas water heater for example).

The battery loses 25-40% of it's remaining long-term storage capacity every time it gets to weak to start the bike. Run it down four to five times and it probably won't ever start the bike again, irrelevant of how much you charge it.

Typical battery life is 2 to 3 years, although many people who keep theirs hooked up to trickle/float chargers during non-use can get 4 to 5 years out of their batteries. A new battery is often far cheaper than being stuck somewhere without enough juice to run the bike -- a borderline battery will still let you push-start a bike, but a really dead battery won't keep the bike running when you try to push start...

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet