Battery Hold Down Help

spencejm · 04-08-2006, 07:51 PM

I recently purchsed an '82 Targa. I love the car but when I was prepping for my the car's first AutoX I found that the battery was not secure. It seems as though the captive nut that you can't possibly get to on the clamp is missing and the PO had basically glued the clamp in with RTV.

I've seen the nice thread on installing an Optima with the mounting plate and that's what I would really like to do. The problem is what to do about the missing captive nut? Is there a standard fix for this or any ideas? I'm not a machinist and most of my previous wrenching has been oil changes and valve adjustments on my old Airhead BMW motorcycle. (At least it's the right engine layout!) Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Joe

Dan in Pasadena · Dan in Pasadena's Garage

Chances are you can buy a correctly sized metric nut at the hardware store and find a local muffler shop to spot weld it in place, wire wheel it and prime/paint and you're fixed up.

I suppose if you don't want to do that, you might be able to JB weld one in place since the nut resists little rotational force once it is clamping. Use a wire wheel to clean up the threads so that the runnig torque of using it in a new nut doesn't break the JB. Might hold, might not.

spencejm · 04-09-2006, 06:01 AM

Dan,

Thanks for the idea. On mine it appears that the nut was actually UNDER a plate. Welding a new nut on would entail cutting the plate out, welding on the nut and then welding the plate back in. Is that what you had in mind?

Anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks.

Joe
Columbia, MO

Dan in Pasadena · Dan in Pasadena's Garage

Well, if that's the case then can you access it enough to use a nut and JB weld? If not how about just threading the plate? Harbor Freight has inexpensive tap & die sets you could pick up for this.

EDIT: Another idea: How about going to a smaller-than-the-factory-giant battery and having a nut welded to the top of the plate? You'd have to do the clean & paint steps but it would be strongest and most all of us are going to smaller batteries anyway

spencejm · 04-09-2006, 08:46 AM

That might be an option. I"m planning on going to the Optima battery. I had been trying to get everything back in the original positions because the mounting plate I was going to use uses the original holes but there's really no reason it couldn't be modified. With the Optima there's quite a bit more room. Thanks for the ideas!

Joe

wswilburn · 04-09-2006, 08:52 AM

Is the nut missing or stripped? on mine, the nut was stripped and I was able to install a helicoil.

Wil Ferch · 10:02 AM

I don't get it... an 82 SC should be like my 85 Carrera...there is no nut.

It's a threaded hole in the baseplate. Actually, there are 3 threaded holes in the floor baseplate to allow three different lengths of batteries to be used. The threaded hole uses ( I believe) an 8 mm socket head capscrew ( itself having a recessed 6mm allen hex). There is a longish hex wrench that comes with the car for access to ther furthest most forward location ( longest battery). Regular allen wrench should work for the smaller battery locations.

See also here for detailed Optima installation
----->>>Optima battery questions

Wil