Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I've had good luck with Napa but certainly can see the shelf life difficulty on that particular battery in city areas.

I'm in the middle of farm country but have no idea how popular that style actually is on farm equipment. The fact there is a local tractor supply store and they have several on the shelf makes me think there might be a local market for them. Am probably going with theirs. Both my hold down and tray have exactly 4 1/8" inside to inside dimension so both will have to be modified for the 4 1/4" 3EH.

Because so many have installed the larger batteries without problems, am wondering if the original prewar Clipper thru some 21st dimensions were smaller but was enlarged -- maybe for the 22nd series -- but they kept the same part number. Some larger ones wound up on some of the Clippers and some old stock ended up on later cars.

Anyway, all speculation and just rambling on the keyboard. It's already hot and I'm not in the mood to do much else.

Greetings, There is a site, "Antique Battery's" here in Youngstown Oh, they make any old style batteries and have the acid type, or gel type maintenance free insides. They are made to look like the original type that came with the car from the factory. I have taken a tour through the shop as it is in the area that I patrol. They also have a set up which I have on my 42 160, which is a system that has a automatic switch mounted under the frame next to the battery box that is connected to one of their special 6/12 volt maintenance free batteries then when you first start the car the switch uses 12 volts to crank it and then cuts out to let the 6 volt system take over once the car is started. So check out their web site. As I said they can make any old brand of battery for any vehicle with acid or maintenance free, very friendly to talk with. Dale

For whatever (but not obvious) reasons myself and another local Packard owner have both had dismal experiences with Antique's batteries. In both cases they were the Group 60s for 55/56 Packards. I bought two of the lead/acid types, the 2nd one to replace the first that failed prematurely at about 18 months of service, and the 2nd one fared no better. My friend bought two of the gel type in the faux Group 60 case and had a similar experience. We're both now using Exide's Group 60/64 Classic lead/acid - we'll see what kind of life we get. I don't expect 12 volt batteries to last as long as 6-volt, but I think I should get 48 months of service.

Howard, unable to locate the receipt for the TSC battery and the car is not at home. You probably all ready know this, but here are the specs for the NAPA battery: 7205, 2E, CA 750, CCA 620, 8 7/8" high, 19 14" long, 4" wide. The TSC battery is, I believe, 4 1/4" wide and it fit in my tray and the hold down worked too.

(o{}o)

Appreciate the info. For some reason my hold down and apparently packardtaximans's are or were slightly smaller at 4 1/8". He needed to modify his slightly and so will I for the 3EH to fit inside.

Would be interesting to know where or when differences with the larger hold down started but not going to worry about it.

I had an Interstate 3EH-VHD battery in my 50 Deluxe 8 for about 5 years. I don't know if the battery retainer in the car was original equipment, but it was wide enough for the 4.25" wide battery. When enough of the retainer had rusted away, I bought a replacement from Max Merritt, only to find it was too narrow for the Interstate battery. I returned it and bought one from Kanter, only to find it, too, was too narrow. When my battery finally died, I was determined to find one that would fit in the replacement retainer. Both the Interstate 3EH-VHD and the O'Reilly SSB 3EH batteries were 4.25" wide and would not fit in the replacement retainer (as were several other way more expensive batteries). The NAPA 7205 was the only battery I found that would fit in the replacement retainer.

If anyone knows of a source for retainers wide enough to fit over a 4.25" battery, please reply to this post. I would like to have the option of switching back to one of the wider batteries if this NAPA battery has a short life.

You should get very good life from the NAPA battery, based on past experiences with it I would expect 5 years at least, probably a year or 2 more.

My two cents for what it's worth. I was using an Interstate 3EH battery and found a battery hold down on ebay that fit the 3EH where the original was two narrow. This worked and when I got my second Packard it came with a plastic battery hold down(pictured below). Since my Interstate 3EH just quite I decided to try an Optima Red Top Battery. It has more CCA than the 2E which is what should be in there and less CCA then the 3EH. I had to get shorter bolts for the hold down and now I don't have to worry about acid eating up the battery tray.
Wes

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