Battery Hold-down

Late after work, I found myself replacing the battery in our 2008 Toyota Sequoia. There was a problem...

The above picture shows the completed battery hold down and one of the old side arms that were too short. So what happened?

Many years ago I had replaced the original battery with an Optima Red Top. Why? Well, at the time I could afford it and you do get what you pay for. The Optima batteries were developed for off road vehicles that are likely to roll over. The standard lead-acid battery has lead plates and sulfuric acid, which is a liquid. When the battery is inverted, the acid spills out causing the battery to fail and whatever the acid lands on to be destroyed. Optimas on the other hand, have thin lead thread wound around a center post instead of plates and a gel acid instead of liquid. The optima battery offers greater power output and deaper drain ability. This means it will give power when it is mostly discharged below 12 volts and it can be mounted on its side or upside down. They work more like a deep cycle battery.

Six years later, we are not in the same financial comfort we once knew. So my darling beloved went to get a battery while I was working. I had advised her that we do not need an optima again and she brought home the original equipment. The OEM battery is much taller than the optima. It would appear that I had replaced the original battery hold down with a shorter hold down to match the optima.

Why am I doing this on a Saturday night in the dark? All the married men can guess...my wife wanted the sequoia for a road trip first thing Sunday Morning. I could not let my woman down, so I got creative.

Like all good farmers and homesteaders, we have a scrap metal pile. Every time I consider bringing it to the scrap yard, I find another use for something in the pile. This time it was an old oven rack. The wire for the frame was just a bit larger than the arms on the original and they were long enough. I cut off the side frame rods from this rack. The bend in the rod at the top left holds the rack in the oven.

I used these for the beginning of the bent ends that hook into the vehicle body. With the help of my vise and a mallet, I bent the tips into the hooks for the vehicle body.

I then smoothed the hooks on the grinding wheel and then beveled the other ends to make starting the threading die easier.

Scroll down for next step

The rod was 7mm. Luck would have it, the bevel allowed me to use a 1/4-20 die to cut threads in the rod. I also had plenty of 1/4-20 nuts and matching washers

I had never twisted a die so many times. This was downright painful as it took time. Cutting threads is not something that can go fast. You need slow steady pressure. It took about five minutes per arm to thread five inches of the rod. If you look at the bottom of the vise, you can see how I used the hook to keep the rod from spinning while I was threading. I actually clamped the first one too tight and it bent. It was easy to straighten and I was more careful on the second.

The very first picture shows the cross bar from the old hold down in place with the new side arms. An hour later, the truck was ready to go. A happy wife makes for a happy life!