How to Activate Your Motorcycle Battery

The first step in activating a motorcycle battery is readying the instruction sheet. Next, put the battery in a plastic tray on your workbench. The tray is there as a precaution against any accidental spill. After peeling a metallic strip off the top of the battery and removing the sealing strip from the six bottles in the acid pack, firmly push the acid pack onto the top of the battery.

A plastic prong inside each cell punctures the seal on the corresponding containers of acid, so the six side-by-side containers of acid can fill the six cells of the battery.

When all the acid is in the battery, cover the top of the battery with a clean shop rag to keep dust and dirt out of it. Then wait for the acid (actually electrolyte) to be fully absorbed into the glass mat in each cell. Once this is completed, switch on your battery charger to the 2-amp charging rate in the maintenance-free mode and connect it to the new motorcycle battery. The tag on the top of the battery indicated that the charge should be 1.9 amps for five to 10 hours. The ammeter built into the charger read slightly less than 2 amps.

Eight hours later, I turned the charger off, disconnected it from the battery, and measured the voltage as being 13.0 volts, confirming that it was fully charged. The final step is to insert the sealing strip, which had been on the acid pack, into the filler holes on the top of the battery. It's a tight fit, since it's meant to be unremovable. Though it takes some effort to press the sealing strip into its final position, do not hammer on the strip. When the sealing strip is flush with the top of the battery case, wash off the battery and install it into your motorcycle.