Okay, spent Saturday modifying my battery tray to fit a larger battery out of an older Mercedes. Battery was good and new, but the car is a parts car. I didn't plan to spend time doing this, but when I woke up and went for Timmies and the battery died out on me, with NO electrical left on, my suspicions of it being on it's last legs were confirmed.
Putting in a larger battery with about 150% of the CCA of the original seemed like a good idea, except for it fitting the tray. Whoops - nothing a little bit of re-arranging can't do, right?
In the end, I ended up:
-removing the dead battery
- removing the battery tray, PCM, and PCM bracket
- re-aligning (with a hammer) the PCM bracket 90 degrees to refit the PCM in the correct spot
- cutting a new "floor" tray to fit over the existing battery tray
- redoing my battery to starter, and battery to PCM cables
-redoing about 90% of the above process about three times for not thinking ahead far enough. :lol:
I now have the battery running lengthwise front to rear of the jeep, instead of side to side lengthwise. The battery just barely fits between the firwall and the front passenger fender, and the PCM is now high up against the hood and between the engine and battery. The only thing I am not happy with was trying to keep the electrical away from the coolant lines.
Big bonus - I appear to have an area next to the battery to store my jack instead of it's current "in the way" location, or possibly a fire extinguisher.
No pics during the process, and no "before" pics, but if you have a YJ and know how the battery and PCM usually sit, you'll see the difference.
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