Battery changeout first time! Help...
 

I need to put a new battery in my '92, and my CHILTON says the way to change it is to remove the left front fender. They mention removal of the TORX bolts and then they say that there are hidden retainers located under the fender that must be removed or loosened to remove the fender :willy: . That's all they say! What kind of "hidden" retainers? how many? how to safety (no scratching) remove or loosen? :ack: Any tips from experienced battery changers? Thanks in advance...

It has been a few months so the images are not very clear in my mind so please bear with me if I miss something.
Remove the 2-4 torx bolts on the left inner fender holding the left vented cover on, then there are 2 I believe under the vented cover on the drivers side. There are also a couple of bolts on the top of the cover, I think.
Remove the battery cables
Remove the battery hold down clamp located at the bottome of the battery holding the black battery hold down bolt.

reverse the above proceedure and you are done.

It's pretty simple you really should have no problem.

On my 86 there are 2 10mm bolts to loosen on the lower side of panel. Look in the gap between panel and rocker. A thin 10mm open end wrench works best. One on the top and a few torx on inner fender. :cheers:

My '93 and '95 have only one bolt at the bottom. You only need to loosen it, then as the others say, the ones in the wheel well and the one on top and pull the panel out.

On my 92, the first time it took me an hour to figure out how to remove a dead battery and ten minutes to put new one in. :ack:
I don't think I ever removed the bottom screws I just gentle pull the panel back about 30 degrees , just enough clearance to put new in .

First a poorly placed Opti and then an unnecessary tough battery replacement. What were they thinking in 1992?

:willy:

Most Corvette battery placements were a PITA except for the Sharks where they were inside the car in a compartment behind the driver's seat. In the early cars, the batteries were under the passenger side fender; you had to bend over the fender, put your hands under the fender and lift the battery up a little and then toward the engine and up and back over the fender.

All of the C4 batteries are in the same place so the procedure for removal is basically the same for all C4 years.

When the gill panel is replaced (and it's a good idea to completley remove it so you don't risk cracking the panel) you do need to re-align the panel to the door and hood. I'ts easy to do but takes a couple tries to get the gaps correct.

The C5 battery is finally in a better spot but it sits over the ECM and those Delco batteries that had leakage problems caused havoc with the wiring and ECM.

Like they said but also when you put it back together make sure you lign up the gap between the side gills and the door. This thing will move
side to side and you want to make sure the gap is correct and when you open the door you're not smashing the door into it. :eek:

As mentioned, there is a 10mm bolt that holds the lower end of the fender to the body. It's between the lower rocker panel and the fender. You don't have to remove it but it puts a strain on the fender especially if you are doing this yourself. It helps if someone else pulls the fender back while you slide the battery in or out. If you want to remove the fender loosening the bolt should allow you to slide the fender out after all the other screws are removed. That wasn't the case with my '85 the first time I changed out the battery. I had to remove the screws to the front half or so of the rocker panel, undo the fender bolt, remove the fender, change out the battery and reinstall everything in reverse order. I had to cut a slot in my fender so it would slide out next time. Go figure, I wonder how many other cars didn't have the hole slotted.

Art

I agree about the poorly placed Opti, but, as far as the battery goes, It's pretty easy to replace and keeps the center of gravity down low where it belongs. Batteries are heavy and, as far as I am concerned, the lower the better, even if it takes a few minutes to replace.
:yesnod:

After removing the torx bolts in the fender well + the 1 bolt on the top of the panel, just LOOSEN the 10mm on the bottom between the panel and the rocker. The panel will just slide out as the bottom 10mm in the panel is slotted rather than a hole. Like said above, take your time in reinstalling to be sure it is lined up .....especially with the drivers door at full open position so you don't crack the panel. It sounds complicated but it is a easy install.

As a newbie to this forum and to corvettes, let me be the first to make you feel more comfortable. This was one of my first projects about 3 weeks ago. It took me about 20mins to get the old one out and 10 mins to get the new one in. The hardest thing for me was lining up the front fender after I got all the screws back in, one of the lower corners kept wanting to stick out on me....Like I said, newbie!!

:iagree: That should about do it. I had missed this bolt when I went to do mine and almost ripped the fender trying to get it out. After realizing my mistake... everything went fast and easy.