Newbie, ignition switch & R75/5 SWB Battery

[equipo5]

Fixed.
The culprit was me. I unwittingly reversed the wiring on the headlight. So it all worked while the headlight was hanging out of the shell but when I put the headlight in the shell the fuse shorted out.

Simple, now I am getting my head around the wiring. Brown = ground.
Its been a good tour around the headlight, and beyond. Connections tidied up and now on to oil change grease and tune!!

[Jean]

Ah. An OH-Shit moment for sure.
Do you have a schematic for your bike? If you don't already know, some of them did not have fuses, and some of them DO. Since you "blew a fuse" I guess yours does.
In any event, the fuse versions have a bit more stuff in the headlight shell than the ones without fuses.
Have you looked on the /5 United website for a schematic?
TWO tricks when doing electrical (or any other work, for that matter) work and you don't have instructions:

Take a digital picture of the whatever before you undo it. Take more as you continue to undo.

Use a new black marker with a sharp tip (black in this case) and put the wire color on or near the terminal; lots of space for this in your case as shown. I keep both a black one and a silver one for this...too hard to keep up with lots of wires in a headlight shell otherwise!

AND REMEMBER...BROWN is GROUND. GREEN is usually HOT.

[equipo5]

Thanks Jean

Your are right. I tend to do drawings but a few people now have advised what you recommend.

[pat76r90]

I'm also a new BMW owner , R/90, so take this with a grain of salt,

I went to a battery manufacturers website, looked up the specific battery for my bike, got the dimensions, and went to a farm supply store and bought a garden tractor battery in the exact same dimensions. 70 amp hours,420 CCA, $40. I wasn't sure the bike was even roadworthy, so I didn't want to invest a lot in a battery right off. I also had to repair my battery tray, and ended up using Harley battery tray mounts, which are a touch bigger than stock,(but I already had them on the shelf}. It is a tight fit. I had to remove the air cleaner housing and loosen the gas tank before I could wedge it in there.

[Jean]

My r100s has a garden tractor battery sitting in a modified tupperware tray.
It is standard operating procedure to remove the air cleaner parts to change the battery, BTW.
If you spring for one of the new high-current-density batteries (Many more $$$) you can install and remove it thru the frame, upwards. I like the capacity of the U1-A tho, over 400 CCA, and the price!

[boocephus]

my 71 needs a battery and i dont use the electric start anyway. is there a smaller lighter substituem i had a panasonic from battery web in my lwb for like 10 years and it was great. but the swb is sort of a rat bike. i would dig on something small and light.

[Deleted User 62]

Odyssey PC680 is slightly smaller.

[fig]

I bought this battery 3 years ago and it has performed flawlessly. http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-18ah-s ... ery-1.html
it's smaller than the lead acid Yuasa it replaced and fits easily in my /5's battery tray. It's sealed and it was only $43 delivered. I highly recommend it.

[boocephus]

I bought this battery 3 years ago and it has performed flawlessly. http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-18ah-s ... ery-1.html
it's smaller than the lead acid Yuasa it replaced and fits easily in my /5's battery tray. It's sealed and it was only $43 delivered. I highly recommend it.

Well, that looks pretty awesome, Fig. Your /5 is SWB? Any chance you can get it in without taking apart the airbox? Maybe too much to ask.

[fig]

Actually mine's a long wheel base so not sure if there is a difference in fitting it into a SWB. I think the battery dimensions are given on the web site so you can see if it'll work for you. For my bike there's no disassemble you just drop it in. Good luck.

DF