Tuesday night I ran by Batteries Plus. The young kid hooked up his battery tester and announced my battery was fine. Truck cranked fine, after I first reported the issue, didn't seem to be an issue Wednesday or even Thursday morning. After work Thursday, I went to start the truck to drive home, and battery was dead. Thanks to the guy about my age driving a Ford car with several U.S. Marine insignia for jumping me off, I made it home to take my wife to dinner for our anniversary. After dinner, jumped it off and headed back over to Battery Plus. Besides having the best price, they are the closest place to me for a battery.
Replaced battery, only one issue: My radio is showing the frequency it is tuned to, but none of the other information, like call letters of station or song title/artist. I guess I will try to pull the ground wire tonight, let it set a few minutes, then re-attach. Any other thoughts on how to correct this error?
I didn't take any pictures, but here is a short HOW-TO on changing the battery. I know, should be simple, but there is a lot of junk attached to the top of the battery.
1. Tools needed: 10 MM regular depth socket, 13 MM Deep socket, or you could do this with open/box end wrenches in 10 & 13 mm sizes. Also, a fairly long, thin, slotted screwdriver. If you are short, you may want a small step of some sort. Probably not much, but a 1 foot tall platform to work from would make it easier to reach in, to lift the battery out, etc. Obviously, don't let your stool scratch the side of the truck.
2. Use 10 MM regular socket to disconnect ground. The negative battery clamp is one of those stamped sheet metal type, maybe a little better quality than some I have seen, and the head of the clamping bolt actually points upward. Uses a wedge type design to exert the clamping force.
3. Flip up the small plastic cover on the positive post and loosen the more traditional "lead" clamp on the positive side with your 10 MM socket.
4. There is a large square shaped plastic piece that covers the front 1/3 of the battery, pretty much from the battery hold down bar to the front of the battery. (Orientation is to the truck, the positive pole is toward the front bumper, the negative pole is toward the firewall. ) To remove this part, you have to gently pry the plastic clip that secures the plastic cover to the battery, this is located on the side toward the engine, other side from the fender. Once you release the clip from the engine side, you can work it loose on the fender side.
5. Using the 13 MM deep socket, remove the nut that holds down the metal hold down bar that stretches across the battery. With the nut removed, you can rotate the metal bar up, then pull it out of the slot in the fender wall.
6. The battery is held down by a second clamp, a more traditional plastic wedge at the base of the battery, engine side. The same threaded rod that you removed the metal hold down bar from in step 5 now has a hex shape portion an inch or so down the length that extends down to the plastic wedge at the base of the battery. Remove this rod and the plastic wedge. Take care to not let the washer fall off the rod as you remove the rod.
7. You can now remove the battery. A 3rd hand would be nice here, to hold the ground wires and that plastic piece from Step 4 that has multiple cables coming out from it while you lift the battery. The factory battery did not have any handles, but I borrowed from the store the scissor type battery clamp they use to carry batteries, and it was fairly easy to remove. Had to snake it out from underneath all of those negative and positive cables, but not bad.
8. New battery had some small handles integral to the battery, so I used these to pick up the new battery and place it in the truck. Little more difficult, keeping the cables out of the way as you try to drop it in. This is where that 3rd hand really would have been nice. I actually trapped part of the ground wire under the battery when I first dropped it in place, but I knew to look for this, so it was easy to clear.
NOTE: The plastic battery tray that the battery sits on in the engine compartment is perhaps 3-4" longer than the OEM battery and my battery was a direct replacement. In the bottom of the tray, there seems to be a series of raised bumps. In order to properly seat the battery, you need to make sure the battery is behind the bumps and the edge of the battery is not sitting on the bumps. These bumps would keep the battery from sliding forward once it is clamped down.
9. Re-install all the mounting hardware. Start with the plastic wedge and the long rod. Then re-install the metal hold down bar and the nut. (13 MM deep socket)
10. Snap the square plastic piece back over the front half of the battery. It snapped on nicely on my replacement battery. I was worried about whether this was going to be an issue, maybe these are all exactly to a tight specification. Hook up the positive clamp and then the negative clamp. (10 MM socket.)
You are done, insure all tools, rags, etc. are removed from under the hood and nothing could get sucked or fall into the fan or belt area of the engine compartment, then go crank your truck.
(Return old battery to retailer to recover core charge.)
Wash your hands. I am always concerned I may have gotten battery acid on my hands that I transfer to the interior of the truck or my clothes. The new sealed batteries don't seem to be as big an issue with this, but I still remember adding water to car batteries.