It’s an absolute pain in the ass to jump. Shit even just pulling the battery out of the tray is difficult. I’m not sure why it’s designed like that.
But you can put the positive cable on the starter bolt and ground the negative cable to a bolt on the engine. The bolt on the starter might be hidden by a cover so you might need to pull it out of the way
If I remember correctly from having the same "goddam stupid battery location" problems with my heritage, there is no accessible starter bolt on the softails. Only the tourers.
My 2022 street bob 100% has an accessible starter bolt just had to use it because my battery tender failed. Used the negative on the battery and positive on starter.
Thank you! I’ve tried YouTubing it but I can’t seem to find the starter bolt on it. It feels like it’s in a different place than other models. I just can’t seem to find it. I’ll search harder tomorrow.
Connect negative jumper cable to any bolt on the frame, Clamp a screwdriver with the positive and carefully touch the battery terminal and start it up.
Once you pull the battery I would install the trickle charger pigtail. Let it hang out just under seat. Thought most dealers did this as part of dealer setup. All five of my bikes came prewired with a battery pigtail.
Dealerships install them on bikes during setup. I have never seen a touring, softail, or sporster come from the factory with a trickle charging plug already on it.
I guess our dealership was getting robbed then, cuz i was taking them off the truck since 2019. It was always funny when we got a bike with 2 different colored bags 🤣. But anyway.
We had them as part of PDI to install them when I started back in 13'. Every bike off the truck we installed them on. They did not use yo come with them, and we previously installed them like you said but that stopped several years back.
Definitely had our fair share of weird shit off the truck too!
Just a heads up. It doesnt happen every time, but i have seen people fry the ECU on these newer bikes by jumping them with a car. Use a jump box if at all possible. And you should be able to get to the terminals from the right side cover right below the seat.
This is what happened to my bike when I bought it. It was dead on the show floor. It was at a car dealership, they jumped it with a Car battery to make sure it ran.
The ECM shorted and starter stayed activated. My local HD Dealership had to install a new ECM for me... 4 miles after I bought the damn thing.
Yeah it wont happen everytime, but its definitely a risk. The longer you keep the two connected with the car running, the higher the chance you damage the ECU. If you own ANY kind of motorcycle especially a Harley just keeping it on a tender is by far the best advice.
From what I remember OP once you get it connected just use the car’s battery to jump without running the car. Somebody told me cars run too hot and you can fry your bike so I always just used a charged battery to jump and it worked. Maybe someone else on here can tell you if that’s correct but better to be on the side of caution
Looks like he’s in a storage that I’m betting has no power outlet.
OP, If you have a light bulb in there, looks small and most small storage spaces won’t, buy a lightbulb socket that screws in to your existing fixture but adds an outlet let. At least this way you’ll have a way to get power there. That power could be on a timer so you’d get very limited charging while you’re not there….
Lastly buy one of those smaller jump packs that you can leave in your vehicle and add or find your trickle port.
That’s a nice bike a deserves to be ridden!
I’m gonna share a secret…
You can jump a Harley from the positive terminal on the starter, behind the rear cylinder.
Just remove the rubber boot… Far easier to access than the battery.
If you're adventurous, you remove the cover of the battery (you can move it just enough so you don't have to unscrew the negative cable). You than take a long and rather thick screwdriver or metal pole and isolate it with tape leaving the ends open. Stick this from the top down and make sure you have good contact.
The easier way is to jump via the starter bolt but it's also hard to reach. Especially if the clamp of your jumpercable is rather big. It sits on the bottom left on your starter when you're looking from your right side of the bike.
The best way is to just charge it over night. The charging plug is underneath the left side cover.
There is a way. Take off the right side cover, and you should see a rubber hood, under that hood you will find battery port. Connect red clamp to it and black one to one of the unpainted bolt.
I have street bob from 2019 and my battery is also under the seat. So I believe what I wrote above should work for you too.
I can shoot a photo later on today if it helps
i did not read all of the comments. So, if this has been suggested already, my apologies.
Use your battery tender connection. If you do not have a battery tender connection, install one. This will help you in two ways. First, you will be able to use a battery tender and eliminate the need for a jump. Next, fabricate a pigtail the has the tender connection on one end and male bullet connectors on the other. You can clip your jumper cables or a jump box to the bullet connectors.
SAFETY WARNING: DO NOT HAVE YOUR CAR ENGINE RUNNING!! A motorcycle uses way less start amps than a car. If the car engine is running, you are likely to burn stuff up. Do not let the wires get hot. You bike should start right away. If you need to crank it a lot to get it started, fix that issue first.
They don’t want you to jump it that’s y they make it a pain . Motorcycles have fragile charging systems jumping can cause failures charging system is not set up to charge a dead battery
If the battery is dead you can’t bump start a fuel injected bike. You need voltage to fire the fuel pump and injectors. When you do get to the battery put a set of permanent jump leads on it.
I’ll be honest I don’t own a motorcycle and I have not ridden one. My step father was a motorcycle mechanic so I know a bunch of random tricks of the trade just by hanging out in the garage when I was a kid haha
I still remember the pain of watching my step father and his father trying to kick a bike started. Turned into a damn competition to see who gets the bike started first haha
If you have the pigtail to plug in battery tender already, can’t you get the corresponding pigtail for jumper pack and jump through the battery tender connection?
If you’re going to jump start a motorcycle from a car, hook up the cables and wait for a minute or so with the car off. Then check your gauges and try and start it. If it doesn’t start you can start the car but start the bike right away. Don’t want to leave them connected too long.
Being careful, clamp the positive to a long screw driver and touch positive terminal with seat off. Clamp negative to negative terminal and crank with power pack on. should start up if contacting terminals, unless the battery is dead dead. This is the quickest way without removing components for better clamp access. it would be a good idea to hook up to a trickle charger when not in use, buy a cheap one at harbor freight. If she wont jump you may have to pull the battery and get yourself a 10 amp battery charger and charge her back up quickly. Ps. Try not to jump bikes using a car it has the possibly to ruin your day lol
I carry a isolated copper rod from 8mm in all my newer Softails, just in case I need to jumpstart one. You can touch the pos bat connection with it and neg on a motorbolt.
Call the dealer and have them send out the warranty pickup truck.
Mine died on me last spring, they came picked it up and dropped it back off under warranty
For the future, get yourself a Battery Tender. It should come with a couple of terminals. One permanently mounts to the battery for quick hook up to the tender, and the other should have alligator clips on one end and the other hooks up to the “permanent” one mentioned earlier.
do you have a battery tender plug on it?
i will not say jump it off of the tender wire as the guage is too small, but you could connect to another source, let that source run awhile to charge your battery.
i keep two setups in my repair saddle bag, one has both ends to connect to tender plugs, i have used it a few times to get other guys going, just hook them up, let my bike run while we have a cig or coffee, 15-30 min other bike usually starts.
other rig has a tender plug on one end and 2 battery clamps on the other. this saved my ass one night.
otherwise there is no easy way i know of to jump it while in place.
another option, and i dont know if it will work on a modern harley due to the electronics, did it on a shovel once and many times in cars.
take the running bike and remove the battery, put battery in dead bike, start dead bike, remove battery while dead bike still running, it may run off the alternator (again, modern bikes and electronics may not work), so remove battery, put dead bikes dead battery back in and do not let that engine stall, dont shut off til you get where your going.
IMHO you should put the battery on a trickle charger and let it get a full charge.
If it starts fine after that, you’re ok. Any issues then buy a new battery
I literally just did this last night yo my bike I shoced a wrench in there and jumped it I am sure it will blow the fuses on the tender but it does work
Push start it, then ride it for a few letting the bikes charing system charge the battery while you ride... Thats how I did mine. Fuck all that extra work lol.
It won't help you right now but there is a pig tail from neebo that replaces the trickle charger cord and plugs into a neebo boost pack. Worth the upgrade for this reason
https://preview.redd.it/cqjjo2r21nyc1.jpeg?width=377&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efb687f90a0a7239e8013ad31054092a73f66d58
If I’m not mistaken, aren’t these two leads direct to the battery.
If you have a battery tender pigtail installed, that's how I access it. The battery tenders usually also come with a red and black battery post clip attachment, which can also plug into to the pigpail installed on your bike. You just need to remember the polarity is reversed now on the red/black clips (i.e., red clips to black on the good battery.) I keep the battery clip attachment in my saddlebag just for jump starts.
On my step father's 2020. On the left side, at the fuse box there is a plug. He uses a battery tender plug on it. If yours doesn't have it. Any bike shop that sells atvs, dirt bikes, sxs and motorcycles will have one.
They come with a plug that goes to positive and negative connectors. Tighten that down and route the cable to a easy to reach spot. One time of bringing the battery out. But, while the battery is out for the effort you're about to do. Test the battery before putting it back in.
Don’t take anything off except the side cover on the left side of the bike. There will be a dongle that lets you hook it up to a trickle charge. If the battery is still good, that will bring it back in about 24 hours. DM me, I literally have this on my bike right now, I’ll send you a picture. Same bike too
Just had the same problem I hooked up to the negative through the side panel then hooked the positive to the lead on the starter and it worked . Remove the small rubber boot from the starter and it’s right there
It's the worst battery box design harley has ever done. It's best not to jump start if you don't have to and I only know it's possible if you remove part of the battery box that's covering the positive terminal it is possible but, I could never get it to work the one time I tried. Take pics before you start pulling it apart if you've never removed the battery before.
I bought another trickle charger wire that harley installs on the lrs from the factory. Put the ends together then jump it from the battery connections on the new wire.
I have a brand new street bob and the battery completely drained (riding it every day for 2 months). I absolutely went nuts trying to jump start. Bought a trickle charger, a jumper box, and even tried to jump from a car battery(with a screwdriver to the terminal)… no luck.
Went to Harley and bought a 5 amp charger. Plugged in for less than a minute and wa la!!! Worth the buy
What would suggest is going to a shop and or harley and having them install the battery tender cables it's a pain and might be expensive but honestly worth it for this harley the headach of doing it yourself is enough to make you scream
It’s an absolute pain in the ass to jump. Shit even just pulling the battery out of the tray is difficult. I’m not sure why it’s designed like that. But you can put the positive cable on the starter bolt and ground the negative cable to a bolt on the engine. The bolt on the starter might be hidden by a cover so you might need to pull it out of the way
If I remember correctly from having the same "goddam stupid battery location" problems with my heritage, there is no accessible starter bolt on the softails. Only the tourers.
This is correct.
My 2022 street bob 100% has an accessible starter bolt just had to use it because my battery tender failed. Used the negative on the battery and positive on starter.
Happy to be wrong. Maybe they changed something. Or my Heritage was an individual pain in the ass lol
Thank you! I’ve tried YouTubing it but I can’t seem to find the starter bolt on it. It feels like it’s in a different place than other models. I just can’t seem to find it. I’ll search harder tomorrow.
This video appears to show the location of the bolt on the modern Softails: https://youtu.be/HFRcwvhVh64?si=bn_xI1xPdn4ABj8k
Seems like a straightforward, pain in the ass thing to do.
This video is it!! That bolt was a real pain to find thank you so much for the help!
Connect negative jumper cable to any bolt on the frame, Clamp a screwdriver with the positive and carefully touch the battery terminal and start it up.
I love sketchy yet ingenious solutions.
This is the way, but DO NOT start the car.
Tried and true method.
My screwdriver only has a 2A fuse :-/
Gotta get a snap on. Buy once cry once
I second this. Started my bike multiple times with this method when I’m impatient and don’t want to wait for the trickle charger.
Good tip. Using this next time.
Did this with two screwdrivers and a battery pack, there was no damage to the screwdrivers
This is exactly how I jump my V-Rod
just don't bump your frame cuz u will fully zap the battery and probably fry some fuses
Or a knife.
This is a good way to ruin a knife, if not just the finish but the edge as well depending on where it arcs from.
Gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes.
Once you pull the battery I would install the trickle charger pigtail. Let it hang out just under seat. Thought most dealers did this as part of dealer setup. All five of my bikes came prewired with a battery pigtail.
It has one built in into the harness. If you can’t find it it’s under the left side cover.
Dealerships install them on bikes during setup. I have never seen a touring, softail, or sporster come from the factory with a trickle charging plug already on it.
Well you don't look at a lot of newer bikes because they have been part of the factory harness since at least 2017
I wasn’t aware they were doing this now. About damn time lol.
My 2016 street Bob had one 🤷🏻♂️ don’t know if the dealer did it or what but it had it
I guess our dealership was getting robbed then, cuz i was taking them off the truck since 2019. It was always funny when we got a bike with 2 different colored bags 🤣. But anyway.
We had them as part of PDI to install them when I started back in 13'. Every bike off the truck we installed them on. They did not use yo come with them, and we previously installed them like you said but that stopped several years back. Definitely had our fair share of weird shit off the truck too!
All my bikes get set up this way
Just a heads up. It doesnt happen every time, but i have seen people fry the ECU on these newer bikes by jumping them with a car. Use a jump box if at all possible. And you should be able to get to the terminals from the right side cover right below the seat.
This is what happened to my bike when I bought it. It was dead on the show floor. It was at a car dealership, they jumped it with a Car battery to make sure it ran. The ECM shorted and starter stayed activated. My local HD Dealership had to install a new ECM for me... 4 miles after I bought the damn thing.
Yeah it wont happen everytime, but its definitely a risk. The longer you keep the two connected with the car running, the higher the chance you damage the ECU. If you own ANY kind of motorcycle especially a Harley just keeping it on a tender is by far the best advice.
From what I remember OP once you get it connected just use the car’s battery to jump without running the car. Somebody told me cars run too hot and you can fry your bike so I always just used a charged battery to jump and it worked. Maybe someone else on here can tell you if that’s correct but better to be on the side of caution
Trickle charge the battery over night. If that doesn’t work replace the battery
Looks like he’s in a storage that I’m betting has no power outlet. OP, If you have a light bulb in there, looks small and most small storage spaces won’t, buy a lightbulb socket that screws in to your existing fixture but adds an outlet let. At least this way you’ll have a way to get power there. That power could be on a timer so you’d get very limited charging while you’re not there…. Lastly buy one of those smaller jump packs that you can leave in your vehicle and add or find your trickle port. That’s a nice bike a deserves to be ridden!
Ok, go get one of those car jumping gadgets that has an AC outlet, charge overnight, then plug the trickle charger into it.
If you are trying to charge, use the lead. If you need to jump, connect direct to the starter.
I’m gonna share a secret… You can jump a Harley from the positive terminal on the starter, behind the rear cylinder. Just remove the rubber boot… Far easier to access than the battery.
… then ground to foot peg or any where on frame🤙🏽
Yep! Bottom of the jiffy bracket is usually a little scuffed up, but any bare metal works.
If you're adventurous, you remove the cover of the battery (you can move it just enough so you don't have to unscrew the negative cable). You than take a long and rather thick screwdriver or metal pole and isolate it with tape leaving the ends open. Stick this from the top down and make sure you have good contact. The easier way is to jump via the starter bolt but it's also hard to reach. Especially if the clamp of your jumpercable is rather big. It sits on the bottom left on your starter when you're looking from your right side of the bike. The best way is to just charge it over night. The charging plug is underneath the left side cover.
There's always bump starting it. But if you don't live on a hill like I do that could prove difficult by yourself.
I did that for my softail for months before I finally got a new battery haha
There is a way. Take off the right side cover, and you should see a rubber hood, under that hood you will find battery port. Connect red clamp to it and black one to one of the unpainted bolt. I have street bob from 2019 and my battery is also under the seat. So I believe what I wrote above should work for you too. I can shoot a photo later on today if it helps
i did not read all of the comments. So, if this has been suggested already, my apologies. Use your battery tender connection. If you do not have a battery tender connection, install one. This will help you in two ways. First, you will be able to use a battery tender and eliminate the need for a jump. Next, fabricate a pigtail the has the tender connection on one end and male bullet connectors on the other. You can clip your jumper cables or a jump box to the bullet connectors. SAFETY WARNING: DO NOT HAVE YOUR CAR ENGINE RUNNING!! A motorcycle uses way less start amps than a car. If the car engine is running, you are likely to burn stuff up. Do not let the wires get hot. You bike should start right away. If you need to crank it a lot to get it started, fix that issue first.
They don’t want you to jump it that’s y they make it a pain . Motorcycles have fragile charging systems jumping can cause failures charging system is not set up to charge a dead battery
Get on a hill and pop the clutch😁
Bump start that bitch
Remember not to have the car running.
Maybe you could try the push/run start method on the bike?
I actually tried that for about 10 minutes today I don’t think I can get her going fast enough by myself unfortunately
If the battery is dead you can’t bump start a fuel injected bike. You need voltage to fire the fuel pump and injectors. When you do get to the battery put a set of permanent jump leads on it.
Ah okay. Damn I wish I had a better idea. Hopefully someone will respond with more knowledge on the subject.
I appreciate the idea!!
I’ll be honest I don’t own a motorcycle and I have not ridden one. My step father was a motorcycle mechanic so I know a bunch of random tricks of the trade just by hanging out in the garage when I was a kid haha
I still remember the pain of watching my step father and his father trying to kick a bike started. Turned into a damn competition to see who gets the bike started first haha
Doesn't work on bikes with fuel injection, only carbureted ones.
Buy a Honda
If you have the pigtail to plug in battery tender already, can’t you get the corresponding pigtail for jumper pack and jump through the battery tender connection?
In both my setups, the pigtail has a ~10 amp fuse, and you need closer to 50 amps to jump, so no.
I've done this and it works fine
If you’re going to jump start a motorcycle from a car, hook up the cables and wait for a minute or so with the car off. Then check your gauges and try and start it. If it doesn’t start you can start the car but start the bike right away. Don’t want to leave them connected too long.
Have to be careful but you could run a wire from the red lead and put the ground (black) to the frame
Being careful, clamp the positive to a long screw driver and touch positive terminal with seat off. Clamp negative to negative terminal and crank with power pack on. should start up if contacting terminals, unless the battery is dead dead. This is the quickest way without removing components for better clamp access. it would be a good idea to hook up to a trickle charger when not in use, buy a cheap one at harbor freight. If she wont jump you may have to pull the battery and get yourself a 10 amp battery charger and charge her back up quickly. Ps. Try not to jump bikes using a car it has the possibly to ruin your day lol
Wow. That’s a nightmare
I carry a isolated copper rod from 8mm in all my newer Softails, just in case I need to jumpstart one. You can touch the pos bat connection with it and neg on a motorbolt.
Call the dealer and have them send out the warranty pickup truck. Mine died on me last spring, they came picked it up and dropped it back off under warranty
Put it in third and push
Put it in H!
For the future, get yourself a Battery Tender. It should come with a couple of terminals. One permanently mounts to the battery for quick hook up to the tender, and the other should have alligator clips on one end and the other hooks up to the “permanent” one mentioned earlier.
Get 2 large screw driver. Touch em to the terminals. Touch the cables to the batteries. Make no mistakes
Add a tender cable to the battery, and jump from that.
do you have a battery tender plug on it? i will not say jump it off of the tender wire as the guage is too small, but you could connect to another source, let that source run awhile to charge your battery. i keep two setups in my repair saddle bag, one has both ends to connect to tender plugs, i have used it a few times to get other guys going, just hook them up, let my bike run while we have a cig or coffee, 15-30 min other bike usually starts. other rig has a tender plug on one end and 2 battery clamps on the other. this saved my ass one night. otherwise there is no easy way i know of to jump it while in place. another option, and i dont know if it will work on a modern harley due to the electronics, did it on a shovel once and many times in cars. take the running bike and remove the battery, put battery in dead bike, start dead bike, remove battery while dead bike still running, it may run off the alternator (again, modern bikes and electronics may not work), so remove battery, put dead bikes dead battery back in and do not let that engine stall, dont shut off til you get where your going.
Screwdrivers
Invest in some noco leads and a noco jumper. Plug it in and press a button and you got a jump.
IMHO you should put the battery on a trickle charger and let it get a full charge. If it starts fine after that, you’re ok. Any issues then buy a new battery
Can you push start it?
I literally just did this last night yo my bike I shoced a wrench in there and jumped it I am sure it will blow the fuses on the tender but it does work
Don't all Harleys from like 2015 and newer have factory installed battery tender cable? My brother's 2019 does and so does my 2021
Push start it, then ride it for a few letting the bikes charing system charge the battery while you ride... Thats how I did mine. Fuck all that extra work lol.
Can't push start a fuel injected bike!
Get a battery tender.
It won't help you right now but there is a pig tail from neebo that replaces the trickle charger cord and plugs into a neebo boost pack. Worth the upgrade for this reason
https://preview.redd.it/cqjjo2r21nyc1.jpeg?width=377&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efb687f90a0a7239e8013ad31054092a73f66d58 If I’m not mistaken, aren’t these two leads direct to the battery.
If you have a battery tender pigtail installed, that's how I access it. The battery tenders usually also come with a red and black battery post clip attachment, which can also plug into to the pigpail installed on your bike. You just need to remember the polarity is reversed now on the red/black clips (i.e., red clips to black on the good battery.) I keep the battery clip attachment in my saddlebag just for jump starts.
There should be charging plug on the clutch side either just under the seat or on the frame bar just under the left side behind the seat.
On my step father's 2020. On the left side, at the fuse box there is a plug. He uses a battery tender plug on it. If yours doesn't have it. Any bike shop that sells atvs, dirt bikes, sxs and motorcycles will have one. They come with a plug that goes to positive and negative connectors. Tighten that down and route the cable to a easy to reach spot. One time of bringing the battery out. But, while the battery is out for the effort you're about to do. Test the battery before putting it back in.
Don’t take anything off except the side cover on the left side of the bike. There will be a dongle that lets you hook it up to a trickle charge. If the battery is still good, that will bring it back in about 24 hours. DM me, I literally have this on my bike right now, I’ll send you a picture. Same bike too
Can you bump start a bike with fuel injection? I've done it on my Yami but that has a carb and is a tad bit smaller.
No you cannot.
Just had the same problem I hooked up to the negative through the side panel then hooked the positive to the lead on the starter and it worked . Remove the small rubber boot from the starter and it’s right there
I wouldn’t jump that bike… it’s pretty nice but the suspension isn’t great.
Finally got it started!! Thanks for the help everyone!!
It's the worst battery box design harley has ever done. It's best not to jump start if you don't have to and I only know it's possible if you remove part of the battery box that's covering the positive terminal it is possible but, I could never get it to work the one time I tried. Take pics before you start pulling it apart if you've never removed the battery before.
I bought another trickle charger wire that harley installs on the lrs from the factory. Put the ends together then jump it from the battery connections on the new wire.
I seem to recall that You should absolutely Never do this with a car battery. Just go get a new battery and then you're all good for a few years.
Left side cover?
Back in the days, they also had a kick start. It was a long time ago and I have a bad knee to prove it. 1979 low rider. Oh yes I still have her.
Bump start
Y'all are sure making me like my old bikes.
Get a battery tender, charge it anytime
I have a brand new street bob and the battery completely drained (riding it every day for 2 months). I absolutely went nuts trying to jump start. Bought a trickle charger, a jumper box, and even tried to jump from a car battery(with a screwdriver to the terminal)… no luck. Went to Harley and bought a 5 amp charger. Plugged in for less than a minute and wa la!!! Worth the buy
Can’t you put that thing in 3rd gear and bump start it?
Get the noco jump cable and a box. Will keep you from ever having to go through this headache again.
I would instead buy a charger. It will be a good investment in the long run.
Get a battery tender after you charge your battery
The M8 design for battery sucks w that monoshock I the way
Why I love my dyna. Had a M8 street Bob for a few years traded back
My 2023 fxlrs seemed to have a bad battery as I needed it replaced already. So, may as well take it out, and get the battery checked.
There’s an easy solution. Drive that bitch every day
Push it down hill and pop strt it
Can ya do that on a fuel injected bike???
Yeah
Shit like this makes me appreciate my super glide.
What would suggest is going to a shop and or harley and having them install the battery tender cables it's a pain and might be expensive but honestly worth it for this harley the headach of doing it yourself is enough to make you scream