Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

[Michael L.]

I decided to follow the directions that were posted to the forum about converting your original or resto battery to a modern type battery and was surprised what I found when I opened the battery I was a little surprised to find a baby battery inside! take a look at the attached pics. Unfortunately, there are no discernable markings on the battery for me to order an exact replacement, but I'm going to take it to my local battery specialty store and see if they can match it. Of note, I realized after cutting out the bottom, that the top is just glued in place with some silicone. if you get a razor blade in there and separate the lid from the case then you can just lift it off and take the battery out without cutting out the bottom.

Mike

battery.jpgBattery A.jpgBattery B.jpgBattery C.jpgBattery D.jpgBattery F.jpg

[Michael H.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Mike,

Look at this battery that may fit and it has great cranking amps.

MEG CRANK MTX-30L or VMAX MR86-50

Mike

[Michael L.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Mike,

Look at this battery that may fit and it has great cranking amps.

MEG CRANK MTX-30L or VMAX MR86-50

Mike

Thanks for the tip Mike. The second battery you listed says it has 450 marine amps? Is that the same
as CCA?

[Thomas S.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Batteries are pretty unsophisticated products. Basically, chemistry, plate materials, surface area, and physical size will usually tell all.

you might try using you iPhone or Android to scan the barcode on the battery. Sometime that will result in useful info. The manufacturer is Enersys, a combination manufacture and distributor. They are in PA and would probably have your answer if you gave the the numbers on the barcode.

[Bill M.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Mike I wish I investigated one of the 2 restoration batteries that I dumped over the years. You have shown that we can rebuild the darn things. Maybe I will get another

[Eric P.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Mike,
The best part of what you uncovered here is that if you (or someone) invested in a costly reproduction battery, it is possible to rebuild it without cutting the bottom out of it.

Nice work!
Eric

[Floyd B.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

I'm sure Vinnie would appreciate an article for the restorer. You already have the pix you need!

[Michael J.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

I have had 2 of those batteries "restored" and an Odyssey small size battery was used as the replacement.

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

I have a lead acid repro battery that I would love to break open and put a new battery inside. After reading the article in the Restorer, my only question I have now is how to attach the positive and negative from the new inside battery to the posts of the reproduction. This will be one of this year's winter projects.
Jeff

[Terry M.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

I have a lead acid repro battery that I would love to break open and put a new battery inside. After reading the article in the Restorer, my only question I have now is how to attach the positive and negative from the new inside battery to the posts of the reproduction. This will be one of this year's winter projects.
Jeff

Jeff
The second row down on the pictures posted by the OP, Mike L, shows the internal cables (jumper cables in electrical parlance) used by the battery manufacturer. In the event you don't find the same battery post connection on the feed-through on your lead acid battery, you may have to use the same connector on both ends of the "jumper" cable. These cables need to be of adequate size and the connectors solid. I prefer crimp and solder. Crimping tools for these sizes and one time use are often prohibitively expensive. Shop around and/or see if someone in the Michigan Chapter or other nearby chapters has already climbed this hill. Or perhaps there is an electrician here or in your nearby chapters that has a proper crimping tool that you can use. You will first need to find cable of a suitable size, then get connectors to match the available crimping tool.

Don't use solid cable & welding cable is better than braided electrical cable. The reasons for that are a whole other story that is too long for here. Just believe me. I can't tell for sure from the picture, but that looks like it might be #2 cable. I know a member who might be better than I am at guessing that size and I will ask him to look, in the mean time perhaps Mike L can see if there are any markings on the cable in the battery he has posted.

I can't emphasize too strongly that the cable size and connectors must be solid and of adequate size. You will have no end of reliable starting issues if they are not.

[Thomas S.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Cost / effort vs Point Deduction from another post.


https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?129688-1963-Battery-for-judging&highlight=Battery+deduction

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Terry,
Thanks for the advise!! I will see what awaits me when I open up the repro battery. Since it is a lead acid battery, I'm thinking that there are no jumper wires inside so I will have to make my own. There are several places I know of here in Detroit that can fabricate proper cables so I will do more research when the battery is opened up. Thanks , as always, for your help.
Jeff

[Terry M.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Terry,
Thanks for the advise!! I will see what awaits me when I open up the repro battery. Since it is a lead acid battery, I'm thinking that there are no jumper wires inside so I will have to make my own. There are several places I know of here in Detroit that can fabricate proper cables so I will do more research when the battery is opened up. Thanks , as always, for your help.
Jeff

I am sorry I missed that point. If you have a standard lead acid battery you are correct, there are no jumper cables inside and you will have to fab your own.

Sorry. You asked for the time and I told you how to build the watch.

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

How to build a watch is very useful information!!

[Ronald L.]

Re: Interesting Look inside my recently (2019) purchased resto battery

Jeff,

Last fall I reworked the inners of an original DC-12.

Lots of lead matrix plate stuff, messy, you do have to do this carefully and I used the flat blade recip saw, worked great, took upwards of 2 hours.

Note this is not a sawzall, that vibration would destroy the real tar top surface imho.

In the end - the two posts extend down into the case. I used those with battery clamps, and most importantly, battery post size shims that upsize those two posts to the clamp size. While available on line, the source I used, once I found they were shipping from Rochester Hills, I just went there to get the clamps, and welding cable. The reason you want welding cable versus battery cable is the finer copper has more flexibility and lower resistance, means more power to the device, and not lost as heat in the copper wire. I wire modern day restomods this way... Finding a good replacement, its likely that the Odessey shown is about the only choice these days, the cca seems a bit low, not much choice with the space available. By summer I suppose I'll make the choice and finish the project.