In another thread I wave been whining and whinging about my “starter woes” which turned out to be a bad ground connection. This and other car problems can be traced back to the deceased previous owner’s decision to install an up-high racing style exhaust header and muffler. Now, I love my header, it gives the car a great exhaust note, presumably improves performance and, let’s face it, it looks cool to have the exhaust pipe exit the rear panel like a type 47, but the problem with the header is that it occupies space normally reserved for the brake boosters, boot tub, swirl-pot and battery. The DPO’s solution to this was to eliminate the brake boosters and the boot tub, relocate the swirl pot and move the battery to the front of the car.
I’m fine with eliminating the brake boosters, I probably would have made that mod myself. In another post I showed my boot-tub modification to accommodate the new muffler and swirl pot locations. This just leaves the battery up in the front of the car where it occupies the space where there should be a spare tire, leaves 10 feet of unsupported, heavy 2/0 AWG cable rattling around in the frame tunnel, waiting to wear through the insulation and start a fire, and a feeble ground connection to the frame that was the source of my so called “starter woes”. So, getting to the point of this post (finally), this is my solution to finding a better location for the battery.
I have always thought the otherwise unused triangular space between the chassis, diagonal brace and cross beam would be a good place for the battery, pretty much where they were in the early S1. Most “normal” car battery sizes won’t fit in this space but a little research found a Group 52 (commonly used in lawn tractors) mounted sideways (it’s an Odyssey AGM, so you can do that) fit nicely and put the terminals in a convenient location. I designed a battery box that was supported by the 3 frame members in CAD. I’m sure most of you reading this would have welded up a perfect little sheet metal box in a few minutes, however I lack the skill and equipment for sheet metal fab, so I stuck to what I know from many years of clumsy boat ownership, fiberglass. It would also be an opportunity to play with the 3D printer my old company abandoned with me after they laid me off a few years ago. I printed a plug mold (60 hour printer build time(!), next time I won’t go with the finest settings), faired it smooth, wax, PVA mold release and built it up with black gel coat and 3 layers of CSM (4 in the corners) and polyester resin. The resulting box is plenty strong enough and the few imperfections from the mold are hidden by the battery. And yes, I put drain holes in the bottom.
I’m sure there are many ways to skin this cat, but if anyone else would like to try this battery mounting approach, I would gladly pass along the plug mold for the price of shipping, with the understanding that the recipient would do the same.
Tom
