i know a lot of people run optimas, and was wondering how they went about installing them. mine is a d34 yellowtop mounted on its side with terminals facing the back. problem is the optimas are about an inch and a half shorter that way than the stock battery. ive heard that the batteries are supposed to come with a spacer that can be used to raise it up so the stock battery hold-down thing can be used. anyone know where i can find one? as of now i just have a piece of wood under there to raise it to the proper height. ive checked a bunch of places and nobody sells just the spacer thing.

 

I went to the hardware store and got a sheet of quarter inch thick neoprene. It's very dense stuff. Not like thin, flexible wetsuit neoprene. I cut it to fit the battery tray and used it as a spacer. As I recall it's a 3/4 inch spacer you need so I used three sheets of the neoprene and glued them together with RTV sealant. I would think your block of wood is just fine unless you're worried about it getting wet and holding water.

 

The spacer / tray thingie is the Great Mystery in Optima installs. I just put a 34R (Red Top) in my '04 Taco. I'd seen claims that the spacer / tray either (a) came with the battery; (b) had to be requested from Optima; or (c) had to be purchased separately. Optima lists the adapter separately as a 'G24 Adapter - Part # 242-0018'.

In my case I ordered the 34R and asked about the adapter. Batteries Plus told me, "Not to worry - it comes with the battery." I get my battery home yesterday and - no adapter. As a temporary fix I cut four 9" X 6" pieces of 1/4" thick plastic pegboard and strapped them together with heavy tape into a 1" high block.

Went back today and politely grumped that I'd gotten no adapter as they said I would. They apologized, pulled an adapter thingie off another battery on their shelf, and gave it to me. I replaced my makeshift spacer with the 'official' one. The Optima tray is more than 1" tall. Frankly, I thought the fitment was better with my makeshift rigging at exactly 1" spacing.

Anyway... You can always order an adapter from Optima. I don't know if there's a hidden policy among vendors that you get one for free for the price of a return trip.... Nobody can give me a straight answer on the situation...

 

I simply called optima and told them my battery didn't come with one. They took down my address and the adapter was on my doorstep about 10 days later. Free of charge, with no hassle from Optima whatsoever.

 

I dropped the 750DU yellow top in my 95, no spacers...no adaptors...just dropped right in.

 

I installed a blue top and the red spacer was too tall, so I cut a piece of 1/2 inch plywood and covered it with a piece of 1/8 inch rubber. The rubber was to keep the battery from sliding around.

 

Call Optima directly and they'll send one free of charge. Apparently the footprint of the battery varies by type and you need to order the spacer specific to the battery you have. Call them, they're helpful.

 

I called Optima and they told me to call the place where I bought it. They told me they wouldn't ship one to me as they can't do that from their location??? Oh well Summit told me that they would send me one. But then it never showed up after waiting 2 weeks. I called to check on it and they told me they had to charge me. I told the rep that I had been waiting for 2 weeks for this and he said someone should have called me to tell me that they are $9 each and I would have to buy it. I told him that no one had called me. He told me he would have to order me one and would ship it to me free of charge since no one called me. So I wonder why Optima told me that? Oh well, I still am waiting on mine Should be here tomorrow I hope.

 

okay well you can see pics on my really pimp cool high tech "website" called webshots... but I actually wrecked 1 yellow top in the factory location by not putting the hold-down on right away... I took a corner too fast and ended up eating one of the cores up with the blades of my alternator... It worked for a couple months caulked shut, but eventually took a ˟˟˟˟ on me. All I did was basically pound/bend the factory bracket flat and it works great. Check my pics. I just pounded it, bending it in a vice would be even better. That said, if you can run a hammer you can do it! I am a perfectionist so the few chew marks from the hammer bother me so if you put it in a vice with a towel or something around it you can make it look like it was meant to be that way.