How to make changing a Griff battery take 2.5 days!
Discussion
As we all know, it's back- and knee-breaking to change the Griff battery. Delving into the depths of the passenger footwell with a dalek-light on your head, moving the wiring rat's-nest hoping that you don't disturb any connections and then, once the battery's changed, finding that your floor marks still don't guarantee a perfect line up of the bolt holes and the captive nuts in the battery box so you need to be able to see the alignment from underneath.
With these things in mind, I decided to use the lift (for the first time on the Griff). Trouble is, the Griff is too low to sit over the lift so the first step of changing the battery was to make up some timber ramps. Cut some left-over timber (from an abri construction) to length, screw two depths together and cut a chamfer (good old chainsaw!). Screw chocks to the end of each ramp and finally ready to change the battery! Easy job now, and I have the ramps prepared for future work on the Griff - such as engine, diff and gearbox oils, coming up next.
F
k me! I've uploaded the image both the correct way up and upside down and bloody thumbsnap loads it upside down regardless!!! Anyway, you get the idea. This might be of interest to those who were thinking about buying the mid-rise car lift from BHP (http://www.bhrepairs.co.uk/gallery.php). It's a great value product, but it is necessary to build/use ramps.
With these things in mind, I decided to use the lift (for the first time on the Griff). Trouble is, the Griff is too low to sit over the lift so the first step of changing the battery was to make up some timber ramps. Cut some left-over timber (from an abri construction) to length, screw two depths together and cut a chamfer (good old chainsaw!). Screw chocks to the end of each ramp and finally ready to change the battery! Easy job now, and I have the ramps prepared for future work on the Griff - such as engine, diff and gearbox oils, coming up next.
F
k me! I've uploaded the image both the correct way up and upside down and bloody thumbsnap loads it upside down regardless!!! Anyway, you get the idea. This might be of interest to those who were thinking about buying the mid-rise car lift from BHP (http://www.bhrepairs.co.uk/gallery.php). It's a great value product, but it is necessary to build/use ramps.
GlynMo said:
As we all know, it's back- and knee-breaking to change the Griff battery. Delving into the depths of the passenger footwell with a dalek-light on your head, moving the wiring rat's-nest hoping that you don't disturb any connections and then, once the battery's changed, finding that your floor marks still don't guarantee a perfect line up of the bolt holes and the captive nuts in the battery box so you need to be able to see the alignment from underneath.
When you've put the battery box back, to where you think it should go, wedge something between the back edge of the box and the floor, to create a gap under the box. Next , poke a screwdriver through one of the bolt holes in the floor from below. The gap you created by raising the box with a wedge should give you enough wiggle room to find the captive nut by feel, using the screwdriver. Once you've enterered the tip of the screwdriver into the captive nut, you can use the screwdriver to lever the box and line it up in the correct position for the bolts to enter, before you remove the wedge. You don't even have to raise the car up to do this. It can be done by lying beside the car with only your left arm underneath the vehicle.
It should only take a few minutes, and if necessary, it can be done in the dark and rain on the car park of a French hypermarket whilst being unreasonably berated by one's wife.
Believe me, I know
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