Battery Tender Jr in Honda Reflex

Transcription

1 Battery Tender Jr in Honda Reflex The following documents one way in which the battery connector from the Battery Tender Jr. by Deltran can be installed in the Honda Reflex (a 2007 Honda Reflex Sport in this case). There are likely as many ways to do this as there are Reflexes out there. Anyone attempting such an installation will require reasonable mechanical skills and a thorough understanding of the safety requirements for working with automotive type batteries... but it's really a fairly simple operation. This installation results in the provided connector (which attaches to the Battery Tender Jr output connector) being placed under the seat where it is easily accessed for placing the battery on charge. The only modification required on the Reflex is a small slit in the positive battery terminal boot. The first task is to remove the seat from the Reflex. This is simply accomplished by removing two nuts on the seat hinge assembly from the studs affixed to the frame. Open the seat and look to the hinge area to find these nuts. As you loosen the second nut be sure to have a firm grip on the seat and lift it off when it comes free. To avoid losing the nuts you may want to place them back on the studs.

2 Removing the battery compartment cover starts with removal of the two fasteners to the right in this photo.

3 To remove the fasteners, use a small pointed tool (small screwdriver works well) and "pop" the center of the fastener down... about 1/4 inch.

4 Once the center of the fastener is down, it can easily be pried up from its outside edge and lifted from the hole. Go ahead at this point and prep the fastener for reinsertion by gripping its outside rim and pressing the pointed end on a hard surface until the center section pops up about 1/4 inch. If the center piece pops out, just reinsert it into the rim leaving it sticking out 1/4 inch.

5 Insert a flat blade (again, a screwdriver works) as shown and push the cover toward the front of the scoot while lifting up.

6 Once you can grip the rear of the cover with your hand, lift it up as if it were hinged at the front. There are small tabs along the edge of the cover and these will pop free as you lift. If you encounter an area of the cover that does not seem to readily pop free, push the cover in toward its center at that point to release the tab. The "hinge" at the front is just two tabs along the front edge.

7 With the cover removed and set aside you'll see the battery. This view is from the right (battery) side. The small wires in this photo are not standard. They are the power supply leads that run to my Gorilla alarm.

8 Lift up and pull back on the vinyl boot covering the positive terminal and push it to the side.

9 Take the connector end of the Battery Tender provided cable and push it down through the opening at the right front corner of the battery with your right hand. Put your left hand into the under seat area and work your fingers forward until you can grab the connector and pull it through. A needle nose pliers or other manner of slender gripping tool may facilitate this procedure.

10 Remove the negative terminal screw and cable and move them away from the battery (temporarily insulating them with tape or other insulating material is a good practice - you do not want them to be able to come in contact with any metal part of the scoot). Then remove the positive terminal screw, place it through the red ring terminal on the Battery Tender cable, and reinstall it in the positive battery terminal. Now take the negative terminal screw, place it through the black ring terminal on the Battery Tender cable and through the on board cable terminal previously removed, and reinstall it in the negative battery terminal. Note that the positive lead includes an in line fuse which will blow if the connector is ever shorted. Unfused battery leads are disasters just waiting to happen so this is a most welcome feature. Once these connections are made, pull the cable slack into the underseat area.

11 When you go to replace the positive terminal boot you will likely have to make a small slit in it to accommodate the wire you just added. Keep it as small as possible - just enough to get the boot to stay in place. With some effort you might be able to feed the ring terminal up through the boot before connection (and avoid the slit) but as I had already done this with my alarm lead, there was not enough "stretch" in the boot to allow it to pass.

12 This is just an overview after the battery connections have been made and the cable slack pulled into the underseat area.

13 This next step may be the most difficult (read tedious) in the whole process. The objective is to get the cable connector fished into the open area next to the hinge mounting plate. To accomplish this first feed a small wire from the hinge area into the area where the connector had been pulled. I used one of those packaging ties found in kids' toys these days but any bendable, reasonably strong wire should do. Then securely tape the connector to the wire and, while pulling on the wire from the hinge side as a guide, push the connector toward the hinge area. It works almost perfectly except that it's a tight squeeze for the connector as it enters the hinge area so you may need to "coax" it with a needle nose pliers to get it through.

14 Once the connector makes it through, pulling the slack cable behind it is an easy task. At this point, with the connector laid over toward the front of the scoot, reinstall the seat. Reinstalling the seat is a simple matter of guiding the holes in the hinge assembly on the seat onto the mounting studs and replacing the nuts. There's very little play in this attachment but you may want to try gently closing the seat and making sure the latch aligns before tightening the nuts, but be certain the cable is out of the way so it doesn't get pinched.

15 It's now time to reinstall the battery compartment cover. It is essentially just a reverse of the removal procedure. Hook the tabs on the front of the cover into their slots and use them as a hinge to close the cover. You'll have to go slowly as the fit around the battery cables is tight even without the cables you just added, so it'll take a little finesse as you simultaneously push the cables in and the cover down. Brute force will probably work, but isn't a good idea. As the cover edges become flush, push the cover in toward its center where the tabs are located until they snap back into place. Once the cover is down tight, insert the fasteners into their holes (you did prep them as mentioned above, right?), and pop their centers down flush with their rims. Where the cable comes up in the hinge area it could possibly get in the way of the hinge operation. To avoid this, affix an adhesive cable mount on the outside of the underseat compartment lip and secure the cable to it with a tie wrap as shown. As an alternative, you could probably also use a small screw mounted cable clamp here - just be sure there's nothing underneath the deck that the screw will hit. From here you can route the cable behind the hump of the battery compartment (shown here) or

16 along its right side.

17 To put your battery on charge, raise the seat, attach the on board connector to the one from the Battery Tender, plug your Battery Tender into an outlet, and gently lower the seat. With the Tender connected, you're not going anywhere, so there should be no need to latch the seat securely. However the cable is outside of the "sealed" underseat compartment and there's enough gap between the seat and the body to allow the cable to exit in a variety of places without it being pinched.