TOPIC:

Past experience with acid over-flows/spills etc. make me want to look into a maintenance free, sealed battery for the kz900. Has anyone ever purchased or used one of these? How are they? Where's a good source for these type of batteries? Do they exist? And does anyone have any experience or comments on the right battery in general? Thanks.

Have had a Yuasa AGM battery in mine for several years. Even though the bike's been sitting most of the time, the battery's never been an issue.

I did a bunch of online searching and couldn't beat the local bike dealer, once shipping was figured into it.

AGM batteries are supposed to be much more resistant to vibration than regular lead-acid.

Thanks for the feedback Rickman. I did some more research, and I'm hoping a battery pro will tell me the error of my ways...BUT. The spec's for the recommended battery for the 76 KZ900LTD say a Yuasa YB10L-A2 It's rated at 1.1 Amps and 160 Cold Crank. It has a measurement of 135mm/90mm/155mm (thats Length/Width/Height. So I find a Yuasa maintenance free sealed battery for the HD Sportster YTX14L-BS. It's slightly better and the only difference is it's 13mm taller in height and 1mm wider and 1mm longer. It has the same polarity and is rated at 1.4 amps and 190 cold crank. I will measure the battery compartment measurements this evening, but I don't see any reason why this maintenance free battery wouldn't work?

It might work... just watch the positioning of the terminals. Some are on the side; some on the top. The pos and neg terminals can be backwards as well. Since Texas is kinda hot, I change batteries about every two years and use the Walmart bike battery since they are closest. They are not the maintenance free type...

Get a "BIG CRANK" agm(absorbed gas mat) battery these things are just plain awesome !!!
And the fellas at battery mart are fast shippers.

www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?p=BIG-ETX15L

Post edited by: intimida2or, at: 2006/04/04 01:06

Are you sure your system is not over-charging? That's the usual cause of excessive acid blowing out of the battery. If that's the case, the sealed battery will not be an improvement. They don't react well to overcharging. They melt.

You don't want a charging voltage much over 14.3 when running a sealed unit.

I guess I should clarify. This bike has not been running since 1988. And I have not had any problems with it prior to that. But in my long 30 year history of riding, I have managed to spill, overfill and mysteriously lose battery acid (which maybe flynrider just figured out for me) all through out the innards in all of my bikes. Because I'm a clutz. So I'm looking for clutz proof. I put $400 into a bead blast and powdercoat job and don't even want to think acid.

skippr76KZ wrote:

Thanks for the feedback Rickman. I did some more research, and I'm hoping a battery pro will tell me the error of my ways...BUT. The spec's for the recommended battery for the 76 KZ900LTD say a Yuasa YB10L-A2 It's rated at 1.1 Amps and 160 Cold Crank. It has a measurement of 135mm/90mm/155mm (thats Length/Width/Height. So I find a Yuasa maintenance free sealed battery for the HD Sportster YTX14L-BS. It's slightly better and the only difference is it's 13mm taller in height and 1mm wider and 1mm longer. It has the same polarity and is rated at 1.4 amps and 190 cold crank. I will measure the battery compartment measurements this evening, but I don't see any reason why this maintenance free battery wouldn't work?

Sorry for reviving this thread, but how did that sealed battery work for you? If it worked in your 76 900 LTD it will probably work in my 79 KZ1000 LTD you think?

I bought a sealed Yuasa YTX14-BS. Which is a Harley Sportster battery. It works great! But keep these points in mind. First of all. The battery is about the same size as the recommended battery for the KZ900. It's only 1 mm wider and longer. Still plenty of room to fit. It also has the terminals polarity reversed. I compensated by buying a longer positive cable for the battery. It was like $3.50 at the local auto parts store. Yuasa and other manufacturers make the same battery with the polarity reversed and thus what the stock KZ's call for, but it's like $30 more for that battery. So again, I just bought the longer cable. (Yuasa made them available for the new (after 2005) sportys - which required the Pos and Minus to be reversed.) The battery I purchased requires you fill a prepacked bottle of acid when you first put it to use. It is then sealed from that moment on and is considered maintenance free. It fits nice and works great! Dennis Kirk - www.denniskirk.com has their PowerMax battery, their part number 20-0375 as the equivalent of the YTX14-BS or go to any Harley Dealer and ask for the same battery that a 2005 or later Sporty uses and you should be OK.

batterymart.com I have had one all spring with 10-1 piston ..190 CCA , SNL Type Sealed lead Acid Less than 60.00 to the house .. came in a couple of days it is all that I will use now ..

try redline.com my 79 has one and it works great

I checked out the one suggested at dennis kirks and it was going to cost 71 plus shipping. Checked redline.com and the site appears to be down. Tried battery.com and cost $61 shipped to my door for the Big Crank ETX15L Battery, I assume same one as Shoe48. Looks like it's a direct replacement so I won't have to get longer battery cables as well. Wish I had known about this place earlier! Hopefully the battery will perform well. It will be nice not having to worry about fluid levels and having to fill it up with acid/distilled water. I also picked up a battery tender jr. so I hope I will be all set for a couple of years or so