95 YJ battery mod

[dunl]

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.

[/img]

[BlackYJ]

I can't really tell from the picture but you may want to add another clamp to hold that bad boy in place.  I only see the stock one at the back

[dunl]

Yeah, I was thinking that. It's hard to tell, but that bracket is almost a full third of the way up the battery. You can really tell the difference between batteries by it's shape that originally fit over the old battery - this one is a lot wider too.

Any ideas on what people would put in the space between the battery and the wall?  I can only think jack or extinguisher.

[bae146]

It is an ok place for a fire ext but..... Most vehicle fires are under the hood and if that is the case, the ext under the hood will not help you at all (unless it blows from overpressure on its own).  If your buddies jeep is on fire you need to undoo  2 side latches, front latch, put up the prop rod undoo the clasp on the fire ext.....  This may not be the best spot for it.  I had a 63 m38a1 that caught fire (I won't incriminate myself with the details)  and it sure was nice to have that ext on the roll bar..  The jack would be a better item to put there, in my opinion.  Not sure how you are going to install a high lift in there though :lol:

[dunl]

Good call on the extinguisher... :oops:

Not sure how you are going to install a high lift in there though :lol:

On it's side, and not one of the really big ones.