Battery size

[85lebaront2]

We don't have an Autozone in our little town, but do have an O'Reilly's. I initially started dealing with them, but their personnel don't stay for more than a few months. Ron, the manager when I started, is now the assistant manager at Bumper To Bumper and couldn't be happier. So I give him some business, but most of it has gone to Skiatook Auto Parts, which is locally-run and has two employees - David, the owner, and DeWayne, who is also member 93F3507.3 here on the forum.

But none of those places carry the Odyssey batteries, and since that's what was in Big Blue for a starting battery when I got him I wanted to get another for the aux battery. Turns out 4 Wheel Parts in Tulsa is a dealer, so I bought from them.

The starting battery is an Odyssey Extreme 31M PC2150, and the aux battery is an Odyssey Extreme 34-PC1500. So a Group 31 fits in the starting slot, but it won't clear in the aux slot as it is too tall so I went with the Group 34.

First, you think battery sizes on a Bullnose are strange, try a K-car derived platform. The battery sizes are weird, retention is like a lot of Fords, a clamp on the flange molded into the bottom of the case.

On all of my Ford vehicles currently I have Motorcraft top of the line group 65 batteries as that is what the Flexes take and Darth has the Bricknose front sheet metal and inner fenders.

Funny story regarding batteries for Fords, a number of years ago I had a 1971 Mercury Colony Park which was described in a car magazine write-up as the closest thing you could buy to a Lincoln station wagon. The Mercury sedans and hardtops used a Mercury frame and front sheet metal and were longer than a Ford, but the wagons were Country Sedans or Squires with Mercury front ends, but Ford fenders. Two issues arose from that, since the frames were Ford the exhaust catalogs lumped them together as "one size fits all". Great, except Ford base engines started with a 240 six, a 302 V8, then a 351W V8, I think the 390 was there in it's last year and a 429 as the top option. Mercury wagons had a 351W as base engine, then a 429 2 barrel and a 429 4 barrel. The last two were identical except for the intake and carburetor. All exhaust systems were single. The six and small V8 had a small tailpipe, the medium V8 got a slightly larger one and the 429s had a 2 1/4" one. Catalog "standardization logic" caused several companies to consolidate at the small V8 size. The other was batteries, open a door or even worse the tailgate on that Colony Park, and I think it was something on the order of 9 - 12 lights would come on. Stick the best group 24F in it (what the Ford models took as standard) and spend some time packing the car for a trip = dead enough battery it wouldn't crank the high compression 429. Battery listed as optional but standard on 429 models, a group 27F. Parts store tried to tell me the 24F was correct for ALL 1971 full size Mercurys. I called them when it wouldn't crank and asked what they wanted to do about the problem, ended up refunding my money, giving me the old battery back so I could go to a store that carried the correct battery (I think it was Sears I went to for the correct one). Today there are a lot of compact powerful batteries, but not in the late 80s - early 90s.

[Gary Lewis]

First, you think battery sizes on a Bullnose are strange, try a K-car derived platform. The battery sizes are weird, retention is like a lot of Fords, a clamp on the flange molded into the bottom of the case.

On all of my Ford vehicles currently I have Motorcraft top of the line group 65 batteries as that is what the Flexes take and Darth has the Bricknose front sheet metal and inner fenders.

Funny story regarding batteries for Fords, a number of years ago I had a 1971 Mercury Colony Park which was described in a car magazine write-up as the closest thing you could buy to a Lincoln station wagon. The Mercury sedans and hardtops used a Mercury frame and front sheet metal and were longer than a Ford, but the wagons were Country Sedans or Squires with Mercury front ends, but Ford fenders. Two issues arose from that, since the frames were Ford the exhaust catalogs lumped them together as "one size fits all". Great, except Ford base engines started with a 240 six, a 302 V8, then a 351W V8, I think the 390 was there in it's last year and a 429 as the top option. Mercury wagons had a 351W as base engine, then a 429 2 barrel and a 429 4 barrel. The last two were identical except for the intake and carburetor. All exhaust systems were single. The six and small V8 had a small tailpipe, the medium V8 got a slightly larger one and the 429s had a 2 1/4" one. Catalog "standardization logic" caused several companies to consolidate at the small V8 size. The other was batteries, open a door or even worse the tailgate on that Colony Park, and I think it was something on the order of 9 - 12 lights would come on. Stick the best group 24F in it (what the Ford models took as standard) and spend some time packing the car for a trip = dead enough battery it wouldn't crank the high compression 429. Battery listed as optional but standard on 429 models, a group 27F. Parts store tried to tell me the 24F was correct for ALL 1971 full size Mercurys. I called them when it wouldn't crank and asked what they wanted to do about the problem, ended up refunding my money, giving me the old battery back so I could go to a store that carried the correct battery (I think it was Sears I went to for the correct one). Today there are a lot of compact powerful batteries, but not in the late 80s - early 90s.

One size usually fits nothing correctly. And a small battery and a 429, with the starters back then, is asking for trouble.

[85lebaront2]

One size usually fits nothing correctly. And a small battery and a 429, with the starters back then, is asking for trouble.

The 429s I had, 1970 and 1971 took the Delco solenoid shift starter. It was wired using the normal Ford relay and had a jumper strap from the battery terminal at the starter to the S terminal on the starter mounter solenoid.