naPA 7212 :cake!

Posted by steve-52/200 On 2012/1/16 16:48:16

I switched out my 600 cch battery for a napa 7212 with 1100 cch ,a mod that hed been reccomended in the threads ,
Wow what a difference
,the battery is almost twice as large as the little 600,,and weaighs a lot more .48 lbs of lead .The required tray mod was painless;
I removed the battery , I slit the tray from right to left at the 1/2 way point of its legnth while still bolted to the inner fender, right in place into 1/2's, with an abrasive wheelmounted on a 4 1/2 hand grinder and removed the back 1/2 ..so far so good
.
I had a piece of 16 guage sheetmetal 8 x 18 for the new floor of the tray and had painted it ahead of time yesterday

there are 4 existing convienently placed holes in the corners of floor of the existing tray that allow the longer piece of sheet metal to bolt right in to make the tray longer ,16 '' 'S IS REQUIRED TO HOLD THE TALLER AND LONGER BUT NOT WIDER HEFTY 7212 ,I used 4 flat headed 1/4 in machine screws so the tops wouldnt poke up into the battery base .
the sheetmetal floor required a teeny bit of notching and fitting to fit around a flange on the wheel side of the tray that was there to hold the original battery in place away from the inner fender ,also easily accomplished with the abrasive wheel.

I saved the last 2 " piece of sheet metal Ihad trimmed off the legnth of the new sheetmetal tray floor ;the existing tray has a 2 pieces of flanged metal which reinforce the inner wheel fender on the wheel side ,the front one won,t be disturbed, but the rear one will no longer be in the right position for the newly legnthend tray ,so the saved scrap piece of metal now 2 x 8, can be predrilled to be placed onside the wheelwell to reinforce the sheetmetal of the wheel well where the bracket will attach ,where it has to bear some of the weight of the new monster battery ,I marked the holes on this piece from the loose back 1/2 of the tray before I bolted the whole thing to gether so they would register ,the top hole of my new reinforcing plate was actually a 3 hole wide slot so to allow for some slop on the boltup
,I used 5/16 x 1 " bolts which is plenty long for the wheel well,bracket,a washer ,and a lock washerand the nut .I had to hold the tray bolt with a box wrench while reaching into the wheelwell with a socket/extention to tighten the tray nuts,that was a bit acrobatic.
Done! tightened up everyting ,nice and rigid when done .A new piece of rubber under the battery ,put on the cables ,reattach the hold down bungie cord ,jump the voltage regulator leads with the loop of wire,a trickle charge for a couple of hours voila ! the entire operation took an hour and 1/2 theres plenty of room for the increased height of the battery the way the hood is shaped , I betcha the old 6 volt batterys were taller than the new, now microscopic and insignificant appearing 600 cch battery.
The verdict? the battery looks like its the right size and started the engine nicley sans hesitation and with a nice sence of authority,a psychologic a +, and we'll go for a raod test today tp proof the pudding