Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 15:24:08 -0700
Reply-To: Eric Henry <erichenry12@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Eric Henry <erichenry12@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Smaller sized Optima battery install (painfully long)
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Ok, so I'm done putting the Optima battery in the battery compartment behind
the driver's seat. If you are one of the more mechanically inclined list
members, hit delete now because this will waste a lot of your time.
The directions at http://www.vanagon.com/index.html were key. Get them
first. I went the route of cutting notches in the little metal lip that
wants to get in the way. That was the way to go, I think.
Things I'd recommend having on hand if you're going to do install one of
these fancy new Optima batteries or if this is your first mechanical
project:
1) A four-pack of Guinness and an entire weekend.
1.5) An Optima battery with the side posts. One yellow top I looked at did
not have side posts. Better check when you buy it. I hooked the ground to
the top (now front) post as there is some clearance to the front when the
batter is set on its back. Wired the positive using the side (now top) post.
With the 3/8" bolt that fits in the hole, there's still clearance for the
swivel seat. Might want to have a couple washers on hand.
2) Next, look around your neighborhood to see if there's somebody, like my
neighbor across the street, working on a beat-up old snowmobile or similar.
He'll probably have power tools. If he left his Sawzall at the work site,
which is probable, there's a good chance he still has his grinder somewhere
in the garage. Oh, there it is! I cut tabs into the metal lip with a hack
saw, giving my neighbor a smaller area to cut with the grinder. Tip: Make
sure you wet a blanket to drape over the carpet just inside the driver's
door, because that's where all the sparks will go. Then, use a framing
hammer to smash out the tabs. Watch your fingers. The battery posts will fit
through these two new holes; might as well make them wide. Give this fellow,
as I did, a six-pack of beer. He'll be surprised and appreciative. As Frost
wrote, good free beer makes good neighbors.
3) Next, go to the hardware store because you will have forgotten to buy
all the little couplers, connectors, disconnects and, this is fun to say,
butt splicer connectors. You might want some electrical tape, too. Go ahead
and let the guy at the counter talk you into buying one of those volt
meters, even if you don't know how it works.
4) Using the wire strippers that you also bought at the hardware store,
connect the wires as suggested in the vanagon.com instructions. Then, fiddle
around with the interior light and wonder why it'll work off the main
battery but not the aux battery. This is a good time to take a break and
have lunch. During this time, read the chapters on electrical systems in
"How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive ..." and also in any Chilton manuals you
may have.
5) When you're done eating and reading, go get your other neighbor, Don,
who lives next door the fellow fixing his snowmobile. Don is an expert
welder, mechanic, snowplow operator (how many times has he dug you out
during those three-foot dumps?) and is just an all around good guy. Don
knows important, complicated stuff and can explain it in clear terms. For
example, Don was able to tell me that all those sparks I saw when I first
tried connect the ground to the battery using my socket wrench, well, those
happened when I accidentally connected the two posts through the socket
wrench. That created a "short circuit." And here, look, that's what "welded"
the 1/2" socket to the socket wrench. That's what welding is, really, a
short circuit. Don's very helpful with this kind of information.
6) Have Don show you how the volt checker works. It'll make sense. Then
you'll be able to figure out that somebody who owned the van before you
messed with the wiring and ran a relay from the interior light to somewhere
in the dash.
7) Go back to the hardware store and get the right size female disconnects
this time.
8) Return. Rewire interior light with confidence.
9) Complete battery connections with a sense of accomplishment. Clean up
van with a feeling that it is somehow improved.
10) Have your last Guinness while you sit in the back, admiring your work.
Eric Henry
83 wc Westy, "Ol' Two Battery"
----------
>From: Eric Henry <erichenry12@earthlink.net>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Smaller sized Optima battery?
>Date: Sun, Oct 15, 2000, 9:37 AM
>
> I'm halfway through the install today (got dark last night, ironically). I'm
> putting a deep cycle Optima yellow top in an 83 Westy as the 2nd battery.
>
> Great directions at: http://www.vanagon.com/index.html
>
> Not sure what kind of seats and swivel bases other installers have had, but
> I was able to simply spin my swivel plate around until the battery
> compartment was completely open. I did notice that the swivel base on the
> driver's side is black and the passenger's is the orange bus color.
> Replacement driver's swivel base?
>
> Glad I bought the Optima with the side post option. I paid $145 for the
> battery at a local auto parts store here at North Lake Tahoe.
>
> Where does everybody ground their second battery?
>
>
> Good luck,
>
> Eric Henry
> 83 Vanagon, as yet unnamed but am considering "The Great Pumpkin"
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------
>>From: Phil Walker <pwalker@NEXTDIMENGINEERING.COM>
>>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>Subject: Smaller sized Optima battery?
>>Date: Sat, Oct 14, 2000, 5:40 PM
>>
>
>> Has anyone installed a smaller Optima or other sealed battery in their
>> Vanagon that prevents them from having to cut the sheet metal? I'd rather
>> not have to hack away at things like it sounds if I go for the standard
>> Optima battery.
>>
>> Phil Walker
>> 89 Westy
>>
>
