K11 Owners Group

Mike Ulrich · Brick Rider Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 43

I took the battery to the auto parts store. They checked it out and said it was junk. I bought a battery for a lawn tractor for $31. It has 345 cranking amps. It was a hare wider than the orginal but it worked. I'm happy. Hope 345 is enough. The local BMW shop thought it would be.

Phil Marvin · Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:59 am Post subject:

Hi, Mike,
Be careful with the lawn tractor battery. I would NOT recommend you put it in your bike. The lawn tractor battery is probably a wet cell battery. If it is like all I've seen, it has no vent tube. Instead, it vents through the filler caps. On a K1100, what is right above the filler caps? The brain! I certainly don't want the brain just above the vent when acid fumes are what is vented! I've been into BMW's a long time (bought my first in 1977). I've seen what the garden tractor batteries will do to the seat pan of an airhead (the steel seat pan is above the battery). The seat pans are rusted out. I wouldn't want that to happen to the connections in my bike's brain!
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Ride Safe,
Phil Marvin in El Paso, TX
'94 K75A/3
'95 K75RTP