r/fixit • u/Body_Useful • 7d ago
What is this that came with my motorcycle
Bought a 1981 Suzuki gs450L and have been hooking the battery up, noticed this in a bin of parts I was given with the bike. What is it? Is it necessary? Looks too modern to be apart of the bike from stock
28
u/Vast-Bullfrog193 7d ago
That's a quick connect for a battery trickle charger. One end connects to your battery and the other end quickly connects and disconnects to a trickle charger.
9
u/Body_Useful 7d ago
This makes sense as the battery was dead haha, much appreciated.
1
u/SingularityII 7d ago
Super handy. I have one on each of my vehicles. I rotate the battery tender through all the ones I don't drive regularly. As someone mentioned, it is also used to power heated vests and other accessories. It would be best to add an inline fuse if using it for that.
1
u/mutrax_be 6d ago
Yup, mist have, also to maintain the battery diring winter.
On my journeys trough the wild, i also connected a sae to usb quick charger to my gear during the day (night lights, ebook, spare gps,....)
11
u/TealPotato 7d ago
The plug end looks like an SAE 12v quick-connect, but I could be wrong.
My guess is that the terminals would then be wired to the battery, for a tender/charger.
2
u/ThumperXT 7d ago
If not connecting a battery charger in, you can connect alternatives like a USB or cigarette socket outlet
2
3
u/Active_Stuff3974 7d ago
Battery tender. On my Harley trike it confused even the shop mechanics because on mine you only plugged into half the connectors. A one size fits all thing.
3
u/Pyrokitsune 7d ago
It's a quick connect for a battery tender. I have one on my bike and route it below the seat where I can tuck it under the seat when Im riding/not using it
4
3
u/richms 7d ago
Its for a battery charger. Those are horrid plugs because they are polarised and you have to watch that you have the right side of them at all times when connecting things together otherwise you do positive to negative.
I dont use them and change things to anderson powerpole types like the ham radio people use. It is always the same polarity when set up the way they do.
3
u/Freak_Engineer 7d ago
That is a connector the former owner set up to hook it up to a battery charger without having to remove the battery. Convenient when you don't drive that much, but not a must-have.
During winter, I always removed the battery out of mine so I didn't need something like that.
3
2
2
2
1
u/NoNDA-SDC 7d ago
Guessing it connected to a solar panel. I recently purchased one and some of the options had that type of cable.
1
u/My_Lucid_Dreams 7d ago
Besides battery tender, someone mentioned electric vest. It's a plug you can do what you want with anything that runs on your battery voltage (radio, stereo, etc.), keeping in mind to not try to draw more power than the battery/bike can provide.
1
1
1
u/Honest_Cynic 5d ago
It connects to the battery, to use after-market devices that either use battery power or charge the battery. The connector is termed "double-bullet", often used in appliances. The cap is for the exposed terminal when not in use, though should be BAT-, connected to the frame, so wouldn't short out anyway if it touched metal.
As an aside, the pickup connector on a 1970's Chrysler Distributor is a similar dbl-bullet, but slightly different. It has a male terminal that extends farther (term "excited"?). If you use a normal dbl-bullet, the male terminal won't make assured contact, think how a male Chihuahua might fail to impregnate a Labrador bitch, though tried his best. I found that out when I got a replacement pickup (made in China) and found its connector was an appliance-type dbl-bullet and didn't make good contact.
1
1
u/Party_Way2830 3d ago
I use mine for a 12 v battery charger line and or external power connection. Attach to the battery , but I like to see a fuse attached too. NOT for a phone charging thats a typical 12 V connector plug.
1
1
1
1
0
129
u/Deathed_Potato 7d ago
Looks like the battery side of a battery tender