Battery Maintainers

[4th Gen Camaro Addict]

Earlier today I told daytonajim that I was going to wire up my battery maintainer this afternoon to the Tom Henry Camaro SS and he wanted me to post a "How To" here. I'm sure that most of you already know how to do this but doing it this way elimates using "alligator clips" on the battery terminals and allows you to shut your hood. You just feed the wire up from under the car and plug it in. To feed the wire up I have a 4' piece of ordinary wire and I have bent a hook shaped eye in one end that I place the maintainer wire in. I push the wire down through an open area under the hood to the floor of my shop and then place the maintainer wire in the hook and then pull it back up to where I can grab it.



For those of you that use battery tenders over the winter months (and also during the summer months when you're not driving your car) to keep your Camaro battery charged and maintained................here is a deal that I found a little while back at K-Mart. The regular price on them was $29.99 but they were on sale for $22.99.



FRONT OF BOX







BACK OF BOX







SIDES OF BOX







TOP AND BOTTOM OF BOX







I know that HOTROD1974, Berger SS PR-1 and I have always used either Interstate Battery branded battery tenders or Deltran Battery Tenders but Die Hard has always had a pretty good reputation with Sears so I thought that I'd give them a try. I to purchased a Deltran branded battery tender when I purchased the Intimidator SS this past October and I shopped around and found the best price on it for $44.99. These Die Hard branded battery tenders were $22.99 each on sale so I basically got two for the price of one compared to the Deltran branded battery tender.



To install the battery maintainer wire on your Camaro, you'll basically need only three tools...............a 16mm wrench, a 1/2" wrench and a pair of small wire snippers.



First, use the 1/2" wrench and remove the nut on the "ground" on the left driver's side fender (top right of photo) and place the "eye" of the maintainer ground wire over the bolt and then re-install the nut. Then un-cap the "red" battery terminal cap on the terminal (bottom middle of photo) and remove the nut with your 16MM wrench.







Then use your wire snippers and snip out the "eye" on the battery terminal end of the battery maintainer wire so that it is a "U". I have never found an eye that is large enough to go over this bolt so you will need to spread the ends a little to get it to go around the bolt and then re-install the nut.













After you have done this, just route your wire to a place that you can run your maintainer wire up from under the car to plug into it.







I always have all on my cars plugged into a battery maintainer unless I either have them out driving them or at a car show. If you go out into my shop at night and don't turn on the lights, all you see is little green lights around the building from the battery maintainers. I always tell everyone that I have my cars on "life support". :text-lol:

[daytonajim]

Great - thanks JD