Techno Duck

I have a PC680 battery in the mail and was curious as to some of your soluitions to mounting it in the stock battery location. I picked up the August issue of Excellence which had a nice write up on how to do it.. but i am honestly not to fond of drilling two holes into my battery tray and some of the fabrication they did (though it was a nicely done article and mount they made).

Rennline makes a nice battery mount that requires no drilling for the 680 sized battery, however its also pretty expensive at $125. I would like to keep this battery upgrade (only $100 so far) as cheap as possible! But if i cant figure anything out i will just buy it.. its nice and professional looking anyhow .

So anyone have pictures as to how they mounted theres, hopefully without any drilling or permanent fixtures? I only plan on running this battery during the winter months and sticking in the old 40lb Diehard back in for the NY winters, where my car sits outside 4-days out of the week unused.

theedge

I would think that you could get some aluminum flatstock say 1" wide, and make three fingers that bolt down to that stud that is in the battery box.

Have one that has three right angles in it, a hole in one end for the stud then it goes over the battery to hold it down. Then two more that reach around the ends to keep it from sliding.

josephsc

I used some plumbing brackets at a hardware store ~$5. Ghetto-install, but works fine. I'll take pictures and post later on today.

shiners780

Funny you should bring this topic up. Yesterday I began making a mounting bracket, and I'll finish it today. Unfortunately, my wife skipped town for a few days, and took the digital camera with her so I can't post pics until the weekend. I'll try to describe it without pics:

First thing I did was clean up the battery tray area, sand it down, and spray paint it with black truck bed liner.

I took a piece of 3/4" plywood, and cut it 6 7/8" X 8". This fits perfectly into the stock hold-down bracket. I painted it black. I am laying my battery on it's side, as it's more stable on its side than upright. Place battery in position on the plywood, and mark 2 holes on each side for threaded rods to go through the plywood. Drill the holes with 1/4" bit, and countersink the holes on the bottom to accept 1/4 X 20 nuts.

Take 1/4" X 20 threaded rod, and cut 4 pieces 4 5/8" in length. Again, I painted these to keep them from rusting. Using loctite, put a nut on one end of the rods, and stick the rods up through the bottom of the wood. Since you countersunk the holes, the rod/nuts should be flush with the bottom of the wood. Check for spacing to be sure the battery fits between the rods.

Take a piece of stock aluminum, 3/4" X 1/8" and cut 2 pieces 8" in length. These will go over the top of the battery, be attached with wing nuts, and hold the battery down. Measure and drill 1/4" holes for the threaded rods. I had some rubber sheeting that I cut to apply to the bottom of the aluminum with double-sided foam tape to help keep the battery from shifting.

Put the battery in place on the wood between the rods, install the 2 aluminum top pieces over the rods, put the wing nuts on and tighten. The entire assembly can now be placed into the stock mounting brackets located in the battery tray.

The battery terminals face the inside of the car, and the battery cables easily reach their appropriate posts. Battery removal remains exactly the same as with a full size battery, as the entire mounting assembly is easily removable with the battery attached.

Total cost of the aluminum stock, threaded rods, wing nuts, and bottom nuts was $8 from Home Depot. I had the plywood, rubber, sticky tape, and paint already. No modifications had to be made to the battery tray area. It looks pretty slick if I do say so myself.

I'll post pics this weekend.

User 41221

Check out this months Excellence, Gary Burger has an article about putting a lightweight battery in his 944.

Regards,

Techno Duck

Scott, i do have the issue of Excellence but would like to avoid any drilling into the battery tray, my car sits outside year round and i would like to avoid any issues with leaks and rust.

Jim, did you have any issues with the battery cables flexing to fit the terminals on there sides? I do like the idea of having the battery on its side as it would avoid any potential clearance issues aswell as lower the center of gravity another .001% .. .

I would really appreciate pictures when you guys get the chance. I know i could probably figure something out myself.. but honestly would like to avoid having to make 10 trips to HomeDepot over and over again, while roaming the isles trying to find stuff that would work. I cant tell you how many hours i spend in there when i am fabbing something up.

Skip Wolfe

The wife has the digital camera - I'll snap a pic tonight or tomorrow. Basically I took a piece of 1" wide aluminum stock and bent in a U shape with two tabs.

genikz

I picked up a similar 1.5" aluminum stock at Home Depot for about $5-8 in a 4 foot section.

Did it bend well, without breaking? I can't recall ever bending aluminum before...

Thanks,
Chris

PS Techno Duck, sorry for the thread jack!

genikz

I'd be very interested in seeing this too. Thanks Jim!

shiners780

No problem flexing the battery cables.

I've got it all together and installed now and it's solid as a rock. I'll take and post pics on Saturday.

Keep in mind the dimensions I listed above are for a East Penn Manufacturing battery (Deka/Braille/etc.). They make the batteries that are sold with many different labels. Your Odyssey, if it's different dimensions, will require slightly different measurements than above.

Skip Wolfe

It bends fine. I just put it in the vice and used a hammer and bent it at where it met the vise.

genikz

That's what I was hoping you'd say. Thanks!

shiners780

Got the camera back, here's a few pics:

Skip Wolfe

Sorry - forgot to get the camera out of the wifes car. I'll take some pics and post them tomorrow.

BTW, nice setup Jim.

genikz

Seriously. For $8, I'm on board (pun intended).