I loctite almost all fasteners on my bike. Even though I have had a loose battery cable once (when I got the bike home after buying it) I never thought of using loctite there. If I had a recurring problem, I'd go ahead, but keep it away from the cable end contact area.

 

NO LOCKTITE on Electrical Connections! Good Grief! What are you Lemmings? Because one idiot does this others follow?

The reason that the Battery Terminals come loose, is that they are corroding; even at a level that may not be readily visible to the naked eye. Corrosion is expansive. That means that Corrosion takes up more room than the material; that is doing the corroding. In this case the Battery Terminal, the Cable and the fasteners. The solution isn't to use Loctite; the solution is to clean the Battery Terminals, tighten them normally, and then coat the Battery Terminal Connection with a thin layer of dielectric grease. Vaseline, has many uses, even for Lemmings. One of them is that Vaseline is an excellent dielectric grease. The purpose of the dielectric grease is to keep air (or rather the Oxygen in the air) from getting to the Battery Terminal Connection. If you can keep Air/Oxygen from getting to the Battery Terminal, you prevent the corrosion caused by the Air/Oxygen. AFTER the Battery Terminal is clean and tight, then apply a thin coating of dielectric grease. Locktite doesn't keep Air/Oxygen from the Battery Terminal. All Locktite does is:1.) Require more corrosion than normal to loosen the bolt, which will happen eventually anyway, and 2.) Locktite insulates at least some portion of the Battery Terminal Connection . . . which is NOT good electrically and since we're talking about an electrical connection here . . . . DUH!

 

I had my negative cable loosen up many times which resulted in the negative post on the battery finally melting down. I got a new battery and loctited the screw and never had a problem with it loosening again.

 

I agree corrosion is expansive and corrosion will cause a bad connection between battery terminal and loose cable ends. I also agree that dielectric grease is good to use.

I disagree that it is corrosion that loosens the bolt; if anything, the expansion would tighten the bolt.

The electrical connection is between the battery terminal surface and the cable end surface. The function of the bolt is to keep the connection tight. If the connection between the battery terminal and the cable ends remain tight, corrosion will not form. It is the vibration that loosens the bolt and a drop of loctite works and will not hurt anything.

 

once in five yrs I had a issue with loose bolts on the battery.. before I started doing most of my own work.

Now about twice a yr when I clean the bike under the seat. I check the batt bolts

All's good and fine to go since then.

 

Instead of the issues that many have mentioned, why not avoid the whole thing was a lock washer? or luck nut??

 

Sounds like a good idea but mine did have a lockwasher on it, it still came loose. Loctite fixed it.

 

Used it on my pickup, only a drop.

 

+1 on this, always wondered why when you buy battery connectors they never have lock washers? I always put them on and use the red spray on stuff to prevent corrosion. No problems so far for decades.

 

The battery cables on my 1996 FXSTC were tightened in the Spring when I put the battery in and taken out when the bike went into hibernation for Winter. I had the bike for 11 years, and not once did the connections come loose. The bolts had the star lock-washers. I also gave both terminals a very light spray with terminal paint. Never saw any corrosion.
I do the same with my 2005 RKing. No problems. You could probably even use nail polish.
If you want to make sure the terminals don't come loose, try using star washers vs the normal split lockwashers. They hold much better, and torque them properly.