I installed an Optima battery in my truck yesterday. It is a bit shorter
than my old Champion 4x4 battery, so the long(8") stock bolts for the
battery hold down bracket basically ran out of threads. I have to stack 5
washers on each side until I could buy shorter bolts today. The stock bolts
are 1/4" thick........since I was upgrading my battery I may as well upgrade
the hold down bolts also! I ended up buying 3/8" thick bolts which are 7"
long(and have more threads on them) and new 3/8" speed nuts. I popped the
1/4" speed nuts out the the battery tray and snapped the new 3/8" speed nuts
on. The fit is tight in the stock cutouts for the speed nuts, but just
comparing the 1/4" speed nuts with the 3/8" speed nuts.....I think it was a
nice cheap upgrade. Those 1/4" speed nuts looked puny next to the heavy duty
3/8" speed nuts. I bolted everything down and everything fits great...and is
extremely solid. Here is the cost breakdown:
2-3/8"x7" Bolts: $.75 each
2-3/8 Washers: $.07 each
2-3/8" Speed Nuts: $.90 each
For $3.50ish it was well worth it to replace those rusty/skinny 1/4"
hardware. Now I just have to fab up or locate a new battery hold down
bracket so I can the the Optima's Side Posts.......so stock hold down
bracket's lip it too wide. I may just take an angle grinder to it if I cant
find something worthy. Heck, I may as well upgrade the bracket also!
Kyle
93 Dakota 4x4 V6
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:01:28 EDT