fastening the battery

I recently took out my battery to clean it off, and I noticed that, when I took it off, (besides it being a crappy design) the hold down was relatively loose. I didn't think much of it, cause I was just going to install it properly when I put it back in....

Now I'm trying to find the right way to get it secured properly. I've tried using each tie down post on either side, but even at the bottom of their threads, it doesn't properly secure the battery any ideas?? I noticed one of the posts has more threads than the other, so I tried it on either side of the tie down, but no luck.

also, i looked through the search feature and found that some people have had problems with arcing/fires cause of this piece of junk (which isn't hard to imagine if you've seen the tie down). I think I will just re-coat it, but is there something for sale for a regular old battery that will hold it better and decrease this risk?

Please let me know if you have any experience with these issues - I don't want such a stupid little thing keeping me from driving my car.

Thanks.

I put two strips of thick foam rubber on the mounting bar to space it out away from the battery terminals. It was dangerously close to the postive terminal on my car and the coating was largely worn off. I agree, it's a poor design and I'd bet that some generic battery hold-downs could probably be adapted fairly easily.

I don't know that yours is the same as mine but there are two holes on each side of the battery. One is toward the front and one toward the back on each side. The hold down bolts go from the holes at the rear to the hold down bracket on the front. I still have over 1-1/2 inch of thread left. Are you trying to use the front holes? Also the hold down bracket if turned the wrong direction would be very close to the post. It is larger on one side so the larger side goes to the front of the battery and the smaller side on the top. This way there should be about 1/2 inch between the post and the bracket when mounted.

Also my hold down bolts are identical. I am getting ready to change my battery so i purchased new hold down bolts and battery bolts.

thanks a bunch for posting the pics..... it shows a difference between yours and mine... mine doesn't have that little metal tray with the holes that yours is mounted to.... it's just the plastic box that the battery sits in (which, by the way is way, is quite bigger than the battery in terms of length) and mounting points on the main aluminum tray that it's sitting on.... no raised edges like the ones that your battery is mounted to.

hmm... is the design different between the years?
mine is a 91. was there a change made to this area? the service manual doesn't show much detail there.....

Your welcome,

Here is the parts diagram for the 1991 and the 2002. Some of the parts listed for the 1991 are the same but it looks like there were two different mounting options in 1991.

1991





2002

Interestingly, the '95 manual shows the bracket, part 2, upside down! I just replaced my battery (died after only 10 years :tongue, and the bracket was installed as per the manual. By reversing the bracket as shown in the parts diagram provided by comtec, there is much more clearance between it and the positive battery terminal. That means less chance of a short, reducing the possibility of an electrical fire as reported elsewhere on prime.

My bracket has the black plastic(?) coating peeling off, and a little rust. Has anyone found a coating material that both both prevents rust and works as a good insulator?

Had the same thing happen to me... after buzzing off the rust and priming, I used Plasti-Dip on the cross-bar and the non-threaded portion of the hold-down hooks.

There is a spray-on version as well but my local Home Despot didn't have it.

UberNSX said:

Had the same thing happen to me... after buzzing off the rust and priming, I used Plasti-Dip on the cross-bar and the non-threaded portion of the hold-down hooks.

There is a spray-on version as well but my local Home Despot didn't have it.

Click to expand...

+1 on the Pasti-Dip. This stuff is great for this application. resists battery acid, insulates, protects from the possible shorting that has destroyed past NSXs with fire, and holds the battery firm in place.
http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1408509#post1408509

+2 For Plasti-Dip!

Thanks for the info. I'll hit up my local Home Depot for a can of Plasti-Dip.

HD now has Plasti-Dip in a spray can (black color only). Later today I'll pull out my sandblaster to clean the bracket, then give it a few coats.

I sand-blasted the bracket, primed it (don't use Rustoleum primer, per Plastidip's web page), then gave it 4 coats of spray Plasti-Dip.

I noticed the original bracket was not primed. That seems like a foolish savings of a few pennies. The original plastic/rubber coating peeled off in two large pieces, revealing rust over almost the entire bracket.

The Plastidip web page recommends priming with a good automobile grade acrylic primer (I used DupliColor) for larger surfaces. I figured the bracket has far more area and is in a much more corrosive environment than plier or screwdriver handles, so I primed it.

Let's see if this finish lasts longer than the original.

I haven't looked up the bracket's price, but I have a feeling I was being just a bit anal here. Perhaps I could have bought a new bracket for what I spent on primer, Plasti-dip and the time to do the sandblasting & painting. :biggrin:

As you said, the OEM coating wasn't very good so you did better by refinishing it. Back when i refinished mine, i just painted it flat black and used rubber edging arount the front of the bracket near the posts. It is sort of like the door edge guards in that it slides on the same way but is much softer. It forms perfectly to the curves in the bracket and gives more protection then the dip :wink:

speaking of battery issues, I have a 1993 NSX and the design for the two cables that come together on the positive terminal is bad. I took the clamp off the positive terminal, removed the two cables and cleaned everything up, putting the two cables into the clamp was very difficult, the clamp doesn't seem large enough to me. I noticed in the pictures of the 2002 the two cables coming together and a red rubber cover, my car doesn't have this, is there replacements parts that are better for 1993's?

comtec said:

As you said, the OEM coating wasn't very good so you did better by refinishing it. Back when i refinished mine, i just painted it flat black and used rubber edging arount the front of the bracket near the posts. It is sort of like the door edge guards in that it slides on the same way but is much softer. It forms perfectly to the curves in the bracket and gives more protection then the dip :wink:

Click to expand...

Good idea. I can still add that even though I already applied Plasti-dip. And people have the nerve to think NSX owners are obsessive!

ftuhy said:

Good idea. I can still add that even though I already applied Plasti-dip. And people have the nerve to think NSX owners are obsessive!

Click to expand...

If you can't find it, hit me up and i will send you some for free :wink:

Mike

I recently replaced my battery as well as my battery tie down bar because my bar was old and dilapidated.

One thing i noticed when comparing my original battery hold down bar to my new one is that the coating on the new one is way thinner than the original. It almost seems like it is merely painted. When I put it on, it touched the positive and it sparked The coating on it is pretty worthless.

I ended up spraying the new bar with several coats of Plasti Dip as well. I also bought some rubber stripping and added that too. When I finally put the bar on, the negative physically touches the top of the bar. I guess my new battery's posts are a little closer to the top than my previous battery. IMO this battery tie down design by Honda is pretty poor.

First time I got a good look at the tie down I thought, "WTF??? What a lousy design. That thing could short out the battery." Some of the original coating was peeling. I ended up covering the thing with a couple layers of electrical tape, with a third layer along the edge near the posts. But I plan to refinish it, most likely with Plasti-dip, then put an edge guard on the troublesome edge.