I am not sure if this forum responds to car questions? I do not know of a newsgroup car site.
I just bought a new car battery, and have an install issue. The battery's negative post is smaller than my Toyota battery clamp can be compressed. Is there a way I can adapt my existing clamp, to securely connect to that smaller battery post?
I hope I am not flamed, for an off topic question. I sure have read many valuable posts/ responses here.
Are you sure you bought the proper battery?
Return the battery and get your money back before you hurt yourself...then tear-up your Man Card.
After double checking you got the correct battery, take a look at this YT video and if it shows your problem.
First step is making sure you bought the correct battery for your vehicle.
Once you are comfortable that your battery will fit your requirements, you can look for ways to make your terminals fit. There are several options, ranging from shims to terminal converters.
Some examples:
(I bought a battery for SWMBO's car last week. When I got it home I found that the Pos and Neg posts were reversed compared to the battery that was in the car. I looked up various battery options for that car and found that even within the same manufacturer's options, some batteries had Pos on the right, other had Pos on the left. The cables were long enough that I could simply turn the battery around to line up the posts with the cables, but it seems like there is no standard, even within the same manufacturer's lines.)
On all car batteries, one post is bigger than the other, to keep people from connecting the battery backwards. Perhaps the other post was bigger than it should have been, but you were able to get the cable on it anyhow. It just didn't need any tightening. So now the remaining post is 2 sizes smaller than the remaining cable, and the clamp won't get small enough.
About those battery post shims, it says: Tighten up connections to worn battery posts with these shims. But your posts aren't worn, they're brand new.
At least one time, a store sold me a battery with the posts reversed. I was still in their parking lot so returning it was especially easy.
Worn or brand new, they are smaller. The purpose of the battery post shims (or any shims for that matter) is to fill the gap.
Do you think the shims can tell if the post is smaller because it is worn vs. because it is new? I think not.
I had no need to return the "reversed post" battery. It had better specs than the OEM battery and I got a great deal using the "buy on-line, pick up in store" service at my favorite auto chain's website.
I followed my standard process:
1 - Know what you want and find it on-line 2 - Engage in a chat session with one of the on-line CSR's 3 - Nicely ask a simple question about the product to build rapport 4 - Nicely ask if there are any additional discounts available or if there is a sale (or better sale) coming up soon. Basically you want to delay/hesitate in actually placing the order.I have never failed to get an additional 10-20% off the price, even after all club-member discounts and web-based discounts have been applied. I assume the CSR's are incentified to get to the sale and have the authority to offer promo codes during the chat sessions.
On rare occasions I've been told "I can give you another 10% off now, but if you add another $X to your order, I can make it 20%." The $X amount is always small enough that is well worth spending it on something I'll use any way, like washer fluid or a couple of cans of brake cleaner, etc. The CSR will even look up the part number for you. :-)
I partially retract what I said. It also has "Adapter for JIS (Pencil Post) Adapt your pencil post battery so SAE clamps will work securely. More >>"
But unless you had the same problem with both posts, I don't think you have pencil post, whatever that is.
I used to have a girl friend who told me she hated it when I asked stupid questions. I was caught off guard and didnt' know what to say about that, but as time went on, mostly without her, I noticed that I would first ask a simple question, like with a utility guy working at a hole in the street, and I realized I did it because he would be more likely to answer harder questions later. IIUYC, this is more or less what you say you do. It's probably too late to tell my ex-girlfriend, however.
Maybe my point wasn't clear but you missed my point. He shouldn't think that the fact that they sell such things mean it's normal for posts to be too small sometimes, and therefore he doesn't have the wrong battery. Because they only** sell them for worn posts.
**I was wrong about "only", at least if he had pencil posts (though that would also be the wrong battery), and I posted my correction before I saw your post.But there was probably a battery with the same specs as your new one that had the posts the same as the original.
All well and good, about getting a low price, but we were talking about whether the battery fits.
Earlier you said.
You drew this conclusion from one car of one make? Believe you me, in many, most, or almost all cars, you can't reverse the battery posts without installing longer cables. With some cars you can cut the ties that hold the cables neatly in place. It's an advantage to have the cables short so that someone else doesn't accidentally connect them backwards.
Nope. Just as an example, let's take any car that uses a Group 51R battery. That's a pretty common battery with lots of choices available, from various manufacturers and with all sorts of CCA and reserve capacity specs.
Here are 2 examples of Interstate Group 51R batteries with "reversed posts" when you view the batteries from the "front" based on the labels: (sorry for the long link, I can't get to tinyurl at this time. A slightly shorter image only link follows.)
51R Battery Option #1:Image:
Anyone not paying attention could easily hooked up those batteries backwards *because* of the "short" cables.
If one is not paying attention to the post polarity they could take out the 51R Option #1 (facing forward) and install the 51R Option # 2, (again facing forward, just like the other one was). They could then easily hook up the wrong cables because the posts are physically in the exact same position. (whoops!)
In my case, I flipped the battery front to back and attached the cables to the proper posts - because I was paying attention - and they had enough give even though the posts were now closer to the front of the vehicle.
Had I installed the battery facing forward simply based on the labels, the cables would have easily reached the *wrong* posts, even easier than they reached the correct ones with the battery flipped front to back.
It is imperative he does not try to connect a larger cable connector to a smaller battery post and vice versa. It is imperative he confirms the negative cable is on the negative post and positive cable on the positive post. If they are crossed, he WILL blow out his electrical system at the least. That's a costly mistake for something which can be avoided by paying attention.
If it is too small you bought the wrong battery. (assuming the clamp fit the old battery)
The other thing to check - you ar CERTAIN you have the negative cable?? The pos cable clamp is larger than the Neg, and the neg clamp CAN be stretched to fit the Pos, but the Pos can't be clamped tight enough to fit the neg.
NOT a good idea to install a reversed battery, even if the cables fit, because very often the ground post is close to things that can easily short to ground, while the "live" post is where it is safe. Turn it arounf and the ground is well protected and the "live" is in close proximity to the body or some other grounded structure --- NOT a good situation.
Did you just say "Once you are comfortable that your battery will fit your requirements, you can look for ways to make your terminals fit?" If it fits your requirements the terminals WILL fit. Period.
Anyone that would consider using shims or terminal converters instead of getting the correct battery for that make and model car is only going to make a bad situation worse.
You said you were paying attention. Had you really been paying attention you would have noticed you didn't have the correct battery for your car and you would have taken it back and exchanged it for the correct battery.
Years ago, I had such a situation with a top post battery. I took the end bolt out of the clamp, and used a hacksaw to gently remove some metal from the clamp. Then, it would tighten.
As others have suggested, be certain sure you have the correct terminal positions, and the right choice of pos and neg clamps and posts.
It would probably be possible to draw an ASCII illustration, but it would take a long time. Be easier to draw some illustrations, scan to PDF and email to you.
This (that both kinds of battery will work in the same car) may be true for your wife's car, but it's not true for many or most cars. Not my 3 Chrysler LeBarons or my Toyota Solara, for example.
It's been 27 years since I've had anything else and I don't remember details of my Pontiacs or my Buick. My '50 Olds had a place on the other side for a second battery, maybe for really cold climates, but no wires. But I've worked on other cars.
If by that you mean that some batteries have the + post on the left and some on the right, I agree with you 100%.
If this is the reason we have been arguing, there's no need for me to reply to your other post. If OTOH you're saying the same model battery will come with the + on the right and also with the + on the left, we still have a disagreement.
I just posted what might close the conversation, but then I looked at a page I'd opened before but not looked at.
It shows two groups:
Group L" W" H" Figure Polarity Terminals
51 9.40 5.10 8.80 10 L/H-POS TOP - SAE AUTO 51R 9.40 5.10 8.80 11 R/H-POS TOP - SAE AUTOI couldn't find where the figures were listed, but it appears that either this chart is wrong or the battery above should be group 51, not 51R.
Hardly. If you have the right battery, cables too short to reach the wrong posts mean you CAN'T hook the battery up backwards.
People don't order the battery by option, but by model number and they are different. I-51R and MT-51R (which should probably be MT-51)
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