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Battey change on C4...piece of cake

L

LT1Vettepilot

Guest
Well I just spent a fair amount of time learning how to change the battery on my '96. I found it quite easy, much more so than the nightmarish stories I've heard. So I figured I'd throw a little post in here for the assistence of anyone else thinking they don't want to attempt this job.
First of all, I'm not sure this is accurate for ALL C4's, but I imagine it should be similar for them all anyways.
Obviously disconnecting the battery is a major step in the process. My positive terminal had a bit of corrosion on it and I could not get enough leverage on it with my 5/16th inch wrench with everything in place. The easiest way I found was to disconnect the negative terminal first, then pull the side panel off the car. The side panel is held in place by two 10mm bolts and 3 internal wrenching star bolts. The first 10mm bolt is on top at the rear of the panel...plain and simple to understand and remove...just takes a 3 inch extension to clear the hood clasp. I recommend leaving this one for last. The first bolt to be losend is the lower 10mm. This bolt is difficult to get to. It is underneath the panel towards the rear. You have to slide a box end wrench between the lower rocker panel and the side panel. On my car, the bolt hole was just a slot, on prior years, I understand that the entire lower rocker panel has to be removed because it is a round hole instead of a slot. Anyway, you just need to losen this bolt enough so that the panel can be moved around, then the 3 star bolts can be removed from the front of the panel in the wheel well. Note, turning the wheel hard left will allow you more room. Just remove the 3 larger screws. Then remove the last top screw I mentioned earlier. After that the panel will slide out without any fan fair. The battery is held in place with a clamp on the back side. Use a 1/2 inch socket on a 8 inch extension to remove it. Trust me...you don't want to just losen it...just remove it, save yourself the time and energy of fighting with it. Then you can pull the battery out of the car enough to get to the positive terminal. After that...out pops the battery, should only take an experienced mechanic about 10 minutes...tops. Installation is the reverse of removal...just line up the bolts with the marks left (the clean spots) and you should end up with perfect alignment on the body panel. If not, it doesn't take much to move the panel around with all the bolts losely installed. THAT'S IT! Easy as cake...probably easier for most of us...unless you have a full time chef. :)

Hope this helps someone out there. If you need more info, I belice there was a post in the forum somewhere that detailed the removal and installation that required the removal of the rocker panel. Thats all folks. Have a fun one
:w
 
You are correct about the lower one being a hole instead of a slot.
Wish it were a slot!! However, what I discovered was that I was
able to get the battery out on my 84 without taking the rocker panel off.
This is because you can actually position the side panel to allow
the battery to slide out. After all the screws are removed (except
the bottom one of course), simply rotate it outward, and slide the
battery out. Of course, everytime I do this, I monkey with the bottom
screw for 15 minutes before I remember it is not slotted - oh well.

Rick
 

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