My battery support adventure
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:02 pm
Well after much searching and calling I pretty much gave up on finding an M38 under the hood battery support on the loose. I did have a fellow on G503 sell me what he thought was a M38 support but when it arrived it turned out to be either a CJ3A or CJ3B battery support.
A CJ support was going to be my plan B choice so it wasn't too big a disapointment and it was cheap enough so no big problem. I have posted pics in my photo gallery of the modified support. It's not perfect as the stampings on the end near the firewall are totally different from a M38.
I had to cut about 3 inches in height from one end(nearest the firewall) and cut the support about 4 inches back from where it would normally attach to the crossmember. I used a 10 ft metal brake to bend a new piece of the same gauge metal, weld it in and make it look like it's supposed to.
The only pics I had to go by of the support were some posted by Wes. I wasn't exactly sure of how the ground cable attached so I had to kind of guess on that detail. I still need to drill the holes but I'm going to wait until I get the fenders back on so I can get the battery box in the exact spot to line up with the fender braces. There are also pics of the NOS Voltage regulator support I got from Ron Fitzpatrick restored to it's proper place.
LIke I say it's not a totally correct support but I couldn't hold the project up and had to go with what I had to work with.
I still need to get some Huck rivets and get rid of the machine screws. The support that attaches to the underside of the support and welds to the fram had been cut and welded in a different place and the rivets were missing so I made rivets out of round head machine screws and ground the heads down flat.
It not perfect but it's all I had to work with.
A CJ support was going to be my plan B choice so it wasn't too big a disapointment and it was cheap enough so no big problem. I have posted pics in my photo gallery of the modified support. It's not perfect as the stampings on the end near the firewall are totally different from a M38.
I had to cut about 3 inches in height from one end(nearest the firewall) and cut the support about 4 inches back from where it would normally attach to the crossmember. I used a 10 ft metal brake to bend a new piece of the same gauge metal, weld it in and make it look like it's supposed to.
The only pics I had to go by of the support were some posted by Wes. I wasn't exactly sure of how the ground cable attached so I had to kind of guess on that detail. I still need to drill the holes but I'm going to wait until I get the fenders back on so I can get the battery box in the exact spot to line up with the fender braces. There are also pics of the NOS Voltage regulator support I got from Ron Fitzpatrick restored to it's proper place.
LIke I say it's not a totally correct support but I couldn't hold the project up and had to go with what I had to work with.
I still need to get some Huck rivets and get rid of the machine screws. The support that attaches to the underside of the support and welds to the fram had been cut and welded in a different place and the rivets were missing so I made rivets out of round head machine screws and ground the heads down flat.
It not perfect but it's all I had to work with.
