Changing a battery in an ATV


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I have had a frustrating time on a couple occasions hooking up the wires to an ATV battery. That stupid little bolt / nut combination can be a pain. Here is how I do it. I slide the nut into the slot where it goes. I screw the bolt into the nut a couple turns and pull the nut up to the top of the terminal. I then place a screwdriver through the hole in the front of the terminal and hold the nut securely in place. Back the bolt out while holding the nut, put the wire (s) in place and screw the bolt back into the nut. After you start the bolt you can remove the screwdriver and tighten the bolt. This eliminates a whole lot of swearing and the urge to throw the whole thing into a junk pile. These bolts are never long enough to connect the wires and simply screw the bolt into the nut. I did this today on the wife's Polaris and thought mentioning it here might save someone's patience. Lynn

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Yup thats about the only way to do it...my 3 700's I had very same encounter....- the choice words tho, never did find that to help

The choice words probably don't help but using energy on them is better than grabbing the battery and tossing it like a shot put because you can't hook it up. Lynn

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Another note on batteries for atv's, DO NOT USE wal mart batteries, use only oem batteries. I made the mistake on the honda 350 foreman we had, settling for the "equivalent" rather than buying the yuasa from a dealer. The lesser amperage fried some costly electrical components; starter, fuel pump, and relay. Best as I remember most of those batteries I have had to fool with had the screws or bolts on top, but sideways where you could get a screwdriver head behind it to hold the nut while tightening it.

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I hate those dang things, but great idea Lynn! I recently had the battery out of my Outlander to charge it and couldn't manage to get the winch and cable hooked up at the same time through the bolt and into the nut. Yes, lots of choice words used lol. Finally gave up and just connected the bike without the winch. Didn't help it was about 15 below zero that day, and the battery location on the outlanders aren't the easiest to get at in the first place...

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