Interesting story on batteries - that was one of the first things I had to
tackle when I bought my Spit 20 years ago. The DPO (who also, by the way,
burned out the clutch in less than 29K miles - so *that* should tell you
something...) had put a Die-Hard (good battery, btw) in. But he relied on the
Sears book to tell which one it should be. Well, Sears got the Spit and TR-7
batteries confused and the battery for the 7 was considerably taller than the
one for the Spit. So the neg post was actually rubbing on the curved bracket
under the bonnet. Rubbed the post right down and caused a corrosion problem
that I still fight to this day.
But the guy at Sears told me it was the right battery for the car (when I gave
him the number). I told him it couldn't be and to come take a look. After he
looked at it, he agreed that it was wrong, so on a chance, he pulled out the
battery listed for the 7 and measured the height, and guess what? That was it.
So we concluded that the numbers were just crossed in the book.
Several years later, after I had moved to VA, I was cruising with a friend from
Yorktown back to the Beach area, when we heard a loud "BANG!" and started
smelling that lovely sulfur smell normally associated w/ catalytic converters.
But since my car didn't, ahem, *have* one of them, it couldn't be that. When I
got home, I opened the bonnet and found that one of the battery caps had been
blown off. Apparently, the voltage regulator had failed and the battery
overcharged to the point of popping the cap right off. It took a couple of
tries for the alternator shop to get the right regulator in, and the battery
survived all that. It, too, was a Die-Hard. So that's all I'll buy these
days. I know there are other great batteries out there, but they've proven
their worth to me. And Sears stands behind them very well (in my experience,
anyway).
--
George P.
NASS #290
'78 Spit 1500
Ruther Glen, VA
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