Help - b:censored:d battery box

[V8 Kieran]

Hoping that sudden loss of power to start was shot battery, I have now got a replacement.

Undid one of the nuts holding the battery box from under the car - second one made fibreglass tearing sound ()and now goes round and round.

Can't move battery box, losing the light, and picking up my wife in a couple of hours (after she returned her company car as leaving job).

HELP! - any tips anyone??

[raceboy]

Your going to need to angle grind the head of the bolt
I imagine in the absence of an angle grinder the head could be butchered of in a number of brutal ways

[V8 Kieran]

Thanks Raceboy

In the absence of anything simpler, I assume tonight is buggered - especially as I dont own an angle grinder

I know, I'll take it to a mechanic in the morning.... oh yeah, it won't start

[raceboy]

You could jump start the car of another car or a battery, but don't turn it off incase it doesn't start again.
Knowing how rusty the bolts get I would imagine it wouldn't take too much force to shear the head off with a chisel and a hammer

[victormeldrew]

You could try cutting a section out of the front of the box at the top so you could maneouvre the battery out with the remains of the box still in situ. A jigsaw would be useful for this!

[victormeldrew]

or even remove the other bolts and then just pull the box out with a bit of persuasion. One bolt thats already loose shouldn't take much persuasion to rip through the box.

[V8 Kieran]

Thanks guys

Just tracking down the jump leads now - new battery can come along with me, and jump each time!

I know the jump leads are in the garage somewhere....

Like the idea of removing top half of box, that might do the trick.

Signing off now to go skin some knuckles...

[V8 Kieran]

Thought I'd complete the tale......

Jumped car from new battery, and drove it to a local mechanic. He stuck an airgun on the nut underneath, while I prised up the bottom of the battery box with a big screwdriver to give some extra purchase. We finally got it off, to find the fibreglass had ripped out of the bottom of the box. The floor of the car was just and oversized hole, so no damage there.

Mechanic cleaned up rusty nuts/bolts, bonded and filled the nut back into the bottom of the box, put it all back and undersealed the bolts again to prevent water ingress, and hey presto I'm back on the road again

[victormeldrew]

I hope you've protected the bolts well when you put it can together! I used Copaslip in the threads, nyloc nuts on the bottom (as they prevent moisture ingress) and just to be sure a blob of silicone smeared around the exposed ends of the bolts. I'm pretty sure next time the will come off no problem!