Today I finally got around to installing an Optima 1050CA Red Top 800U
Battery. The 800U is the side posts and top terminal battery. Well it turns
out I cannot use the side terminals because the stock battery hold down
clamp hangs down over the edge too far. My father is going to have his work
fab up a nice aluminum hold down bracket which will still have a full lip on
one side(the non-side post side) and a skinnier lip on the side-post side. I
also will need to get 2 new looooooong bolts(and two washers of course) for
this bracket because the Optima battery is shorter than my old Champion 4x4
1050CA battery, so the threads run out before the hold down bracket is
tight......so I have to stack about 5 washers on each side for a quick
Sunday fix. I am going to run down to the hardware store tomorrow during
lunch break and pick up two fully threaded bolts.....I doubt I will be able
to find something that long in stainless but will try for that, otherwise
normal steel bolts will have to do. It was an interesting experience
soldering that thick 6gauge wire with new ring terminals......but it looks
really nice now without those mangled nasty stock battery clamps. I just did
the rewiring and soldering of the 6gauge negative wire and the 10gauge
battery ground wire, because I ran out of propane for my hand torch....so I
will also have to get a new tank at the hardware store tomorrow along with
another roll of 60/40 solder, cause I only have about 1' foot left. I
actually ended up using two grounds for the battery with new 10guage fine
stranded wire. One ground I ran to the stock location for the battery ground
and the other I ran about 18" away to another ground; nice and thick ring
terminals were used for these ground wires with some really cool adhesive
lined shrink wrap. I used this adhesive lined shrink wrap on the thick
6gauge main negative battery cable also(did a double layer of shrink wrap
here), and will continue to use it on the positive wired side. So this week
I will finish up on the positive wires and get the new battery terminal
clamp installed also. I really love these new military grade battery style
clamps, sooo much nicer and user friendly than the stockers.
Well after I got everything hooked up, and also installed a new set of Penda
Hide A Hooks rear stake pocket tie downs(really nice if you ask me!).....I
fired the truck up. I was suprised! The truck was sitting for a good 7 hours
when I started it. Typically when it sits this long, it will idle up around
900-1000 rpms for a few minutes and then idle down to the normal 600 rpm
range. This is the 'cold idle' warm up problem I have been having for a good
year now. Well right after I started it the truck idled at a smooth 600rpms
and never budged. So maybe the Champion 4x4 battery had something to do with
this? Maybe/Maybe not? Overall it was a good work on the Dak Sunday.
Kyle
93 Dakota 4x4 V6
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:01:28 EDT