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Ron Stygar Carl Buckland Dale Beuning Forums Help
From digest.v4.n609 Thu May 16 20:40:47 1996
>In the meantime, what batteries can I choose from for my '91 E34 M5 The new BMW replacement batteries are made in the US by Douglas. I'm told there are only 3 battery manufacturers in the US, Douglas, Exide, GNB. Probably not accurate, though. Sam's Club sells a Mercedes Diesel battery from GNB which I believe will fit your car but is not vented through a tube. I'm told (I listen well) that GNB offers a vent kit consisting of a cover for the cell cap well and a tube but have not seen it. I think their phone # is printed on the batteries at Sam's. Interstate Batteries sell an E34 battery which has a funky oval vent at the center of one long side and also offer a tube and adapter to fit the factory under-seat vent pipe. Should cost about $100 with the adapter. Interstate sells through dealers/independent shops. Please, on all applications where the battery is in the trunk or under the seat, use only a vented battery or battery box with vent. The real problem is on E30 fitments, as the group 41 battery Sam's sold for the E28 used to fit fine on E30's and was vented. It only required a minor modification to the clamp foot. Now they have taken off the lip on the short side of the case, again I'm told, to fit some VW tight applications where the side foot got in the way. That battery used to be about $35, now I've got to use Central Battery's Interstate clone with funky side-oval vent for about $75. Anyone have a (cheap) solution for E30 batteries? Phil Marx BMWCCA #6021 From digest.v4.n611 Fri May 17 07:59:58 1996 Phil Marx wrote:
>The real problem is on E30 fitments, as the group 41 battery Sam's sold for There is another option for E30s, although it isn't for everyone. It sounds like the Sam's Club battery Phil was referring to may be similar, so the following may apply to it as well. Exide makes an International Series battery (memory wants to identify the specific model as 2I) that is the right size for an E30, complete with vent ports, except that it has retaining flanges along the *sides* rather than on the *ends*. Consequently, the factory clamp won't work. Since the Exide is available with rather large reserve capacity (A-H) and high CCA, is available everywhere, and is quite inexpensive ($49 for high-end 72 month warranty version at K-Mart), I purchased one and fabricated a clamping mechanism that uses the stock battery tray without modification. Undoubtedly there are many ways this might be done; I fabricated a clamping frame by forming 1/8" thick x 1/2" wide cold rolled steel around the battery. This steel strap clamps a flange (fabricated from bent sheet metal) on the end opposite the factory clamp bolt hole, then runs along both sides of the Exide battery, capturing its mounting flanges, and is then bent to form a V shape which is clamped under a plate bolted into the stock mounting bolt hole. The battery has a nice, flat, indented region just a little over 1/2" high just above the mounting flanges into which the clamping frame fits perfectly. The bent sheet metal flange is captured by the battery box in just the same way as the original battery. It took a few hours to fab the clamp, but I thought it worthwhile. It is very secure, if a bit difficult to fit. The original vent hose just plugged onto the vent port of the new battery.
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