MZ/MuZ Riders

Reading through this and other forums (fora??) it seems the general concensus is that the 7ah battery fitted as standard to the Skorpions isn't really man enough for the job. I fell into this trap last week. Hit the starter a few times (not ridden for a few weeks) and ....grooaannn..donk! So I decided to research available replacement batteries and see if I could solve the power problem at the same time.

My first thought was to search on Google - which returned a bunch of hits on weedy 7ah batteries, all made by folks I'd never heard of, and at around thirty-odd quid or so. I wanted something bigger ................. much bigger.

I spent a pleasant hour searching on battery case size (that's a trick to see performed! )and I found, to my pleasant surprise, that a number of other batteries existed that, while fractionally bigger, were double the power rating at 14ah. I then narrowed the search down to a sensible size, a make and a supplier.

I settled on a company called "Tayna Electrical Supplies" http://www.tayna.co.uk/ who were able to supply me with a Varta (Good quality make) 514 011, 12V, 14Ah Battery for just £23.99 (+ electrolyte & postage). My battery arrived, as promised, the following day, took a 12hr charge - and the starter now spins the motor with unprecedented vigour!!

The difference is quite marked, especially if trying to start after a week or so. Gone is the languid and sluggish labouring of the 7ah battery and the rapid draining of the meagre 7ah jobbie - the starter now has plenty of power to draw on to spin over that big single ...........

The dimensions of the new battery are
Length 135 mm -
Width 90 mm -
Height 167 mm.

Slighty thicker and taller than the original, the replacement fits snugly into the exisiting area, requiring a minor mod to the rubber securing band to encompass the slighty fatter body. I simply screwed a curved 1" plastic block onto the existing hook-on point to extend it out past the case.

A recommended upgrade next time your 7ah battery dies.

Great article. Would you be able to give us a list of what other bikes these batteries will fit. They are unavailable stateside .so that we may be able to match a UASA alternative. Cheers

The MZ-dealer in Sweden says that in the Skorpion it should a 9Ah battery. In Yuasa-language for traditional lead batterys it is YB9L-B.
(And the Varta code is 509 015. I looked at the Tanya-site and they suggest that battery for several MZ-bikes.)

It's length is 137mm, width 76mm and height 141mm.
The "L" says minus to the left, and the last "B" says... something I'm not sure of, but the ventilation-hose will be on the oppsite side and the poles will look OK.
It fits perfecly and this far I think it's strong enough.

Nils

The 'book', while claiming a 9ah battery is sufficient is, if you believe the more experienced owners (and I do), somewhat on the weak side of things. I've spoken with several owners who've had breakdowns simply because, when the bike's been reluctant to start, they've flooded it on the first couple of tries, and the battery's not had enough in reserve to allow for clearing the engine. Personally, I'm not terribly keen on that niggling doubt of "Will she restart?" when I'm out clearing the cobwebs from my geriatric brain. It's got enough to cope with nowadays, just remembering to breathe in AND out.

There's also the lighting issue. The standard Skorpion lighting is just fine - if you're happy to wear night vision goggles and give the jamjar of glow worms on the headstock an occasional poke with a sharp stick. However, fitting brighter bulbs is an issue with the small battery fitted as standard - simply because of the lack of reserve.

Fitting the 14ah battery may be overkill - but it's for the same price as the smaller, 7a/h battery! The dimensions - Length 135 mm - Width 90 mm - Height 167 mm - just squeezes into the tray behind the airbox, requiring minimal mods to strap it in place. The insurance this provides in terms of reserve capacity is well worth the effort in my opinion. The starter now spins at its maximum speed, there's enough power not to have to worry about multiple restarts on a short journey (dropping off and collecting stuff to different locations for example), and I know that I can now uprate my headlamp bulb without having to worry if the generator can keep up for the few hours that I'm ever out at night.

To me, that sounds like a win-win situation.

PS: If any of you guys want to go to a battery dealer and feed him the size of battery you want along with the a/h rating, he should be able to cross reference it from his own datasystem.

Nice idea. My Baggie is coming up for its annual service (& battery change). I'll mention this to the service guys (using a new outfit that's been recommended to me 'All About Bikes' in Bristol) and see what they can find to fit.

Cheers,

Doug

Have to agree with Bob, fit as big capacity a battery as you can. Original lasted 18 months in my Tour, fitted an 11ah and doubled the life + more. Need to replace mine now 41/2 years later. Bike is used a least 4-5 days a week all year. The worst thing you can do to batterys is leave them in lower tha full state of charge. If you don't ride regularly e.g. 2-3 times a month put them on a low charge rate from a battery charger.

These fit rt125 the bigger needs to have some mods made to battery compartment
and some plastic needs trimmed on the side cover details on request also posted here on site
they may also work on other mz bikes.. agm and sla sealed battery's in this size are hard to find and usually
require being mounted on side i now have a 12v 15ah gel mounted on its side with longer wires
and went in to price shock when buying the copper to make a longer set of wires
dave


type ah length width height L W H weight cca

YB9L-A2 9 5-5/16 3 5-9/16 138 77 141 5.3 124

YB10L-A2 11 5-5/16 3-9/16 5-3/4 136 91 146 7.0 160

Replaces:
CB10L-A2, 10LA2, 02073210, GM10Z-3A, M2210Y, M3210Y, 740-1857, 44355, ES10LA2


link for sealed battery
http://www.bikebatts.com/product_info.p ... ucts_id/26

Just read this thread and it couldn’t of come at a better time. My Skorpion has been sluggish to crank over for a while now (getting worse). Have toyed with the idea of replacing existing batter with a higher capacity one, so this is great. I also read a while back, on another post that a guy had all the gunk cleaned from around the starter motor gears. Don’t know if this is a common issue or anyone had similar experience. I noticed the casing around the mechanism has a sealed gasket, anyone know if the mechanism is surrounded by oil. Do I need to drain anything or take any other precautions?

Regards

Stu

There's an easy way to test if it's your battery that's causing your Skorp' to act like a sloth doing the backstroke in molasses - jump it!

Nah! Not THAT 'jump it', you pervs - use some of those emergency starter leads from a car. A car has a socking great battery that has enough oomph in it to run your bike for the next thousand years so, get a decent set of jumper leads (anything that's less than 1cm/1/2" in diameter is really a Confederate tie and is useless, trust me) and connect it to yours (+ to + remember, unless you like sparks).

If the starter now spins like a dervish on ecstacy then you have a battery that's not delivering the goods. If there's no change then you need to look somewhere else - starter needs a service, poor earth connections, volts have fallen against the dollar, God doesn't like you - that sort of thing.

Eliminate the obvious and what's left must be the answer.

i am not a fan of hooking a car battery in with the bike battery it charges the bike battery to fast
and can explode remove bike battery and try car battery but do not run it long as charging system will
be over worked charging the car battery just test if bike starts then get it off the bike

if you need to slow charge a bike battery use a #194 marker lamp bulb in series with plus lead
or a 25foot roll of number 14 wire that will keep the charge current with in reason
so battery does not boil
dave
the roll of wire also will work when charging a car battery and the circuit breaker in the charger pops on and off
charge with roll of wire in series for a while then hook charger direct ....

DAVID THOMPSON wrote:i am not a fan of hooking a car battery in with the bike battery it charges the bike battery to fast
and can explode remove bike battery ....

Sorry to disagree, but as the potential of a battery is 12 something volts off charge, I find this rather hard to understand, unless the bike battery is damaged in some way. 'Charging' a battery in the accepted sense requires a voltage 'pressure' exceeding that of the target cell array - usually 13-14v or so on a 12v system. All connecting two batteries of differing charge states together will do, is result in a relatively gradual equalisation of their respective potentials - simply because of the lack of available 'pressure' ..............

With respect sir, as for damaging a generator by connecting it to a battery that is 'too large', isn't that rather like not firing a gun straight up into the air for fear of straining it? Again, all a generator will do in this situation is deliver its maximum rated output and no more. I would suggest that this is good way of testing , with an ammeter connected in series, just what your own particular system is capable of under a healthy load. I would suggest that, if your system failed merely because it was connected to a flat battery, regardless of the battery's size, then you've just uncovered an already lurking problem.

i have been at the electrical 52 years and trust me what the books say
is subject to Murphy's law
just ask my friend with the acid burns on his side and back ...
dave

DAVID THOMPSON wrote:i have been at the electrical 52 years and trust me what the books say
is subject to Murphy's law
just ask my friend with the acid burns on his side and back ...
dave

OK. It's just that in 40 years in engineering and 22 of those as a professional electronics/computer systems engineer, it's never happened to me. Guess I'm just lucky.

remember a battery is just a few steps away from hydrogen production
and in a battery its combined in to 2 parts that like to go booooom
when there is a spark
yuk!
remember the reason we do not have big Hindenburg air ships any more they burn
dave

DAVID THOMPSON wrote:remember the reason we do not have big Hindenburg air ships any more the burn
dave

Er Yep! You guys bombed the crap out of us!

Joking Dave!! You guys (well, the Brits actually) also rebuilt Volkswagen afterwards, at Wolfsburg, IIRC!

Regards
Bob (aus Iserlohn)