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[ManuH]

Hi there, I'm a long time lurker on this forum and it's a wonderful treasure of informations about Zeros and other motorcycles.

Recently my gf had her internal charger broken on her Zero S 2014. We managed to remove the internal charger (Calex) and ordered a new one.

Now we're trying to mount the new charger but it seems very difficult to reconnect the DC connector back. The rubber around the connector makes it very difficult if not impossible to slide it up to the internal connector.

Is there anyone who has a good tip to manage to reconnect the DC connector? I watched the instructions from the Zero manual but it's all talking about dismounting which was already difficult but manageable.

[JaimeC]

First, a warning:  I have NO IDEA what I'm talking about (sorry) BUT... would slathering the rubber with dielectric grease make it easier to push the connector in?

[Richard230]

In my experience replacing two OBCs, once on a 2014 S and another time on my current 2018 model. You are right that reconnecting the wire on the right side of the chassis is a real pain in the butt. Unfortunately, there is no trick that makes it easy to do. You need someone with small fingers to grab the connector and someone strong to move obstructions aside. I seem to recall that we also loosened a chassis screw to allow just a little more movement to improve access.

Here is a link to the thread detailing my illustrated comments regarding replacing the OBC: https://www.electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=10369.msg94690#msg94690

[ManuH]

Finally we managed to connect the Anderson DC. I'll try to post some pictures later but by unscrewing one side of the battery cover it gave us enough space to push the connector upward.

[MVetter]

It's a lot easier just to de-pin the Anderson then push the wires through. Once they're in place pin the Anderson again, then connect it to the wiring harness.

[NEW2elec]

Good to know, mine is dying too.  here's how to do that.
From the Youtube channel  EFFICIENTSELF

[alex2]

For future reference: I just replaced the OEM charger on my 2014 DS. I was able to slide the cable up through the large empty space between the motor and battery (BEFORE mounting the charger to the bike), and then slide it around the motor mounting bolt to it's proper location by finding a thin spot in the cable, underneath the rubber boot. There's a spot between the connector and the actual cable where it's only the two conductors, which are thin enough to slide through the gap easily. Much less work than taking the connector apart. Sorry, no pics. I tried, but couldn't get anything good. Hope the explanation is good enough...

[ManuH]

We were looking into removing the Anderson connector. We managed to do it easily on the old charger but for some reason it seemed not possible on the new charger. We were afraid to break something so we gave up on this. Otherwise it would have been not too complicated, the connector is made in a way that you cannot mix the polarity when plugging the wires back. Red goes to (+) and Black to (-).

What I did was to slide down the rubber cover a little bit from the connector so it was easier to pass it next to the motor. Once passed on the other side the difficulty was to put back the connector aligned correctly. What helped a lot was to unscrew 3 screws from the battery cover. Once aligned, I just slid the connector up by holding the round part of the cable.

[Richard230]

That is the way I did it, too.