Mine are nuts, not wing nuts. Kind of a PIA as a result, since you need a tool to remove.

I'm guessing the wing nuts were after added. Also as you know, the ground strap on the early car used a nut as well where it attaches to the rear of the spare tire well. I replaced mine with a wing nut, since that is often removed to do work on the car.

 

I put an Optima battery into my '79. It's a sealed AGM unit that doesn't require any venting so I
- restored / repainted the battery box with neutralizing, flexible battery tray coating,
- put stainless bolts and nuts with rubber washers on both sides to seal out any water ingress (bolt ends sticking out the bottom aren't the most attractive, but not many will see them),
- adhered a rubber trailer fender tread strip to the lid and around the side as an isolater
- through-bolt mounted a billet Optima Battery Mount kit that I picked up somewhere at sometime and had in my parts cabinet,
- and topped it off with one of Hans' Sharkwoofers.

The power and ground feeds for my secondary fusebox come off those side terminal posts, so no messing with the factory wiring for all the add ons (auto-dim mirror with Homework, 1,000 watt 9 speaker stereo, electric door locks, etc) other than splicing onto one 12v switched wire that runs to an 80 Amp SPDT relay to power that side of the add on fuse panel.

I'll edit with pics shortly.

 

Nice clean installation in your Spyder, Pete.

If there was an Optima with just side terminals and no posts, it would be easily possible to put a Group 74 (same size case as group 24) in the cars with some adapted hold-down bits. The early cars could use a 77. Side-terminals-only would eliminate the height problem, but would require a change of the cable terminals.

In cars with added accessories like the audio stuff in Pete's car, wiring to the positive side terminal makes some sense. With the audio negative coming back directly to the battery, be aware that lifting the ground strap at the rear apron will no longer isolate the battery for working on or storing the car if the amplifier chassis is connected to the body. Further, if the ground strap is lifted and you attempt to start the car, full starter current load will pass through that ground lead for the audio. That lead is never fused, so the risk is melting that wire (looks like 8-10ga?) coming from the side negative terminal and headed for the amplifier chassis. Non-issue if the amplifier chassis is floating off the body electrically, but that in turn adds more excitement as the head unit often isn't floating, making the path include shields on audio cables. Better IMHO to bring the amplifier ground to the chassis right next to the ground where the battery negative attaches to the rear cross rail in the tool compartment.

 

Excellent point Dr Bob. The black ground wire that goes from the side terminal on the battery only goes 2 places - to the ground connection for the stereo amplifier and to the ground side of the secondary fuse panel I added. The only items that receive their ground from the secondary fuse panel are electrics I've added that also receve their power from the other side of that panel so it is essentially isolated from the rest of the car wiring - which is maybe what you meant by a floating ground.

Here's a photo of the fused distribution block I added - top row is constant 12v circuits (i.e. door locks), bottom row is switched 12v circuits (radio, mirror, etc) and the power to this strip goes through the 80 amp relay - trigger wire from the OEM fue panel trips the relay then power from the wire back to the battery goes through the relay and to the fuse panel, right side is for the ground connections for the circuits in the upper and lower rows. This fuse panel is mounted to the firwall using industrial strength velcro (so not touching the body) to the left of the OEM panel.

Both panels are protected by a piece of Corian I custom cut and shaped to be the fuse panel cover. I used Corian because I wanted something that wouldn't crack and splinter over time, was solid since it's also the passenger's footrest, and most imoratntly, non-conductive (just in case). Pic of that here too.

So with this setup, do you think I am OK or should I change something?

 

My '84 has the clear plastic cover with foam glued to the under side. I'm currently trying to remove the foam remnants (very very difficult) so I can eventaully glue in new foam.

Hugo

 

Pete--

Easy test: Lift the ground wire you have attached to the side post, and use your DMM to check resistance to the negative terminal on the battery. If that's anything but very high to infinite resistance, you should consider moving that connection to the rear frame rail by the ground strap connection. The ground strap is a very low-impedance path so this shouldn't risk noise in your audio circuits.