69 Battery

[Tom M.]

When Did They Change From Top Mount To Side Mount Cables

[Greg L.]

Re: 69 Battery

3rd or 4th week of June 69.

[Tom M.]

Re: 69 Battery

Thanks, you guys are great

[William C.]

Re: 69 Battery

The original '69 setup was unique in that the hex size on the sidemount bolt was 7/16 inch rather than the 5/16 used later. The introduction of sidemunt batteries was accompanied by many problems with the workers unfamiliarity with the new process and the lack of accessability to the bolts in some configurations, which led to many stripped bolts and howls of complaints from the car plants to the manufacturer (Packard Electric) For a period of time the bolts were then sent out for Case hardening, a process that effectively ended to stripped bolt problem, but at the cost of stripped batteries, a more unacceptable solution. The third "fix" ws to reduce the size of the bolt head, requiring a special tool to be used (still an air driver) by the plants to affix the battery cables. By the time this fix was in place, most of the plants had trained the operators to pay attention to the process, and the stripped threads problem had declined markedly, Packard Electric put in place a process for the car plants to order repair quantities of Battery Bolts (Free of charge) and the world moved on to other challenges.

[Joe L.]

Re: 69 Battery

The original '69 setup was unique in that the hex size on the sidemount bolt was 7/16 inch rather than the 5/16 used later. The introduction of sidemunt batteries was accompanied by many problems with the workers unfamiliarity with the new process and the lack of accessability to the bolts in some configurations, which led to many stripped bolts and howls of complaints from the car plants to the manufacturer (Packard Electric) For a period of time the bolts were then sent out for Case hardening, a process that effectively ended to stripped bolt problem, but at the cost of stripped batteries, a more unacceptable solution. The third "fix" ws to reduce the size of the bolt head, requiring a special tool to be used (still an air driver) by the plants to affix the battery cables. By the time this fix was in place, most of the plants had trained the operators to pay attention to the process, and the stripped threads problem had declined markedly, Packard Electric put in place a process for the car plants to order repair quantities of Battery Bolts (Free of charge) and the world moved on to other challenges.

Bill-----


Also, the actual size of the THREADS for the positive and negative posts was different for 1969 batteries (and, possibly, later). I THINK that one was 1/4" and the other 5/16". When I changed my battery for the first time, batteries with the different size terminal lugs were no longer available. So, I had to change the lug bolt in one of the cables.