CR3171 Finally going back together!

[Aussie Mike]

As part of the rewire I found I needed a new battery. I also needed to move the battery box in the boot as it hit on the roll bars where they went through the boot floor.

I decided to free up a bit of boot space and relocate the battery to the engine bay. I bought a neat compact battery that only weights 12KG and puts out 525 Cold Cranking Amps which is the same capacity the battery fitted to my XR8 ute. Should be plenty to turn the LS motor over.

There's an empty space in front of the cross member so I figured I'd make a new battery box and bolt it in place. It was a fun project on the milling machine.

It started out as some pieces of 12mm plate but much of it has been machined away to reduce weight. Boxhead calls them speed holes LOL!



It weighs bugger all and is very sturdy.



The battery is a perfect fit and the weight is nice and low down. I'm not 100% sure I like how the top retaining plate turned out. I'll probably pick up some more material through the week and machine up another one. Easy enough as the program is stored on disc.



It was a fun machining project and a distraction from the tedious task of cutting and shutting the wiring loom. Back to the soldering iron, heat shrink and tape tomorrow.

Cheers