Dead Battery (incl. battery charging)

[24-42]

Originally Posted by RussBarnes

Rich,

Russ;
I'm just curious, I have a 450 and have the 34/78 Optima.
On the floor, about 4" from the old battery's NEG post, there is a 6mm stud that was where the NEG cable grounded to the chassis. On the floor about 4" to the right of the POS post is an identical stud protruding from the floor.

I just switched the NEG cable to the upper stud when installing the Optima.

My question is: does the 451 have the stud near the POS post like the 450 ?

BTW: The 'Robustness' of the Optima as opposed to the OEM battery is readily apparent.
Mine is almost two years old and shows NO signs of degradation.

Also, if you ever need warranty on the Optima, I'm pretty sure there will be a Optima dealer closer than a Smart dealer.

Cheers
Donald LaFavor

[SmartDigger]

Not sure what the number is but, I it is the new bigger battery

[RussBarnes]

Originally Posted by 24-42

Russ;
I'm just curious, I have a 450 and have the 34/78 Optima.
On the floor, about 4" from the old battery's NEG post, there is a 6mm stud that was where the NEG cable grounded to the chassis. On the floor about 4" to the right of the POS post is an identical stud protruding from the floor.

I just switched the NEG cable to the upper stud when installing the Optima.

My question is: does the 451 have the stud near the POS post like the 450 ?

BTW: The 'Robustness' of the Optima as opposed to the OEM battery is readily apparent.
Mine is almost two years old and shows NO signs of degradation.

Also, if you ever need warranty on the Optima, I'm pretty sure there will be a Optima dealer closer than a Smart dealer.

Cheers
Donald LaFavor

Don,

I had read your comments and expected to find the same on my 451 and there are also three studs, but not where you described: The original is slightly to the rear of the original negative battery post and that was where I connected my new ground cable. The second option was to use the stud that is used for the hold down strap and that would have had the right length but might have worked loose and lose ground. The third stud was on the opposite side and a little closer to the front, but still about an inch from letting the original ground cable work without being stretched too tight.

The other thing was the hold down clamp had a 90-degree angle that was used to locate the stock battery. It wouldn't let me clamp down the strap without putting a lot of pressure on a thin edge of steel, plus I'm not sure it would have worked and if I had bent it up then the clamp would not have exerted any pressure on the battery so I made a shim from some poly I had. It did the trick and let me use the stock clamp and when tightened all the way it was just right to stop the movement of the battery. I could have used a piece of wood, but happened to have a big piece of black poly to fabricate a shim from that won't absorb water.

Russ