Securing the battery??
12-28-2014 | 09:12 AM
#23
TECH Addict
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 2,628
Likes: 28
I fixed mine simply by putting a small piece of wood 6 inches long by 1/2 wide in frt of the battery between the batt and above lip that breaks off on the overflow tank. Just loosen the battery hold down, pull the batt back set in the wooden piece, push battery forward against the wood and reinstall the battery hold down& bolt. Gorillas couldn't move it now. I've doing this for the last 6 fbodies I've owned. Replacing the overflow tank is useless, they always break.
12-28-2014 | 10:41 AM
#24
On The Tree
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 112
Likes: 0
From: Petal, MS
I removed the battery tray and installed a piece of aluminum angle where the lip broke off, matched drilled the angle and the battery tray and bolted the angle to the tray. I installed the battery while the tray was out of the car and removed just enough of the angle lip that fit to the battery lip so there would be no movement. I have been running the LSX Challenge Series for two years now and they have not had any issues with the battery being loose.
12-30-2014 | 07:25 AM
#25
11 Second Club
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 545
Likes: 2
That whole battery tray/overflow tank arrangement is a monumentally stupid design. It needs some sort of strap over the battery to insure that the damn thing doesn't move around. I had a battery replaced by a local mechanic who said the one in the car was so weak he couldn't dependably start the car to do what he was hired to do. In the process the incompetent jerk snapped the bolt off that holds the securing cleat. He couldn't get the broken bolt out of the tray, so he just handed the car back to me with a loose battery. He mumbled something about ordering a new one that would take a week or more to get here and cost around $70. I told him I'd handle it. I went to the local Pick 'n Pull and found that every 4th generation F-body had the front ridge on the battery tray sheared off. I imagine that it must happen in sudden stops, which all of those cars had ex tperienced. Anyway, I finally got the stupid bolt out of the tray in the car with the use of WD40, a couple of pair of vise grips and lots of cursing. BTW, besides the 2000 Z28 I also have a 2004 GMC Safari van that doesn't have a much more secure battery arrangement. At least it's not the top of the overflow tank.
Is the tech guy at the track supposed to be confirming that the car has the proscribed factory battery hold down or is he supposed to be wrenching around on it till it gives up? Sounds like the tech checker was a little out of his area of
responsibility.
Is the tech guy at the track supposed to be confirming that the car has the proscribed factory battery hold down or is he supposed to be wrenching around on it till it gives up? Sounds like the tech checker was a little out of his area of
responsibility.