A-a-and new battery is in

And it was almost as fiddly as anticipated.

First, buy your battery. Normally hardly worth mentioning, but this sucker is HEAVY. Happily, when I got to the Napa store and took it out of the car and set it on the curb, an older gentleman (within a few years of my age, probably) offered to carry it into the store. I took him up on the offer, and it turned out to be a win-win I think–I got the battery inside, and he got to feel good about himself, on two counts–proud of himself for being still able to do it, and good for having done a good deed. When I was thanking him afterwards, I said something like “your good deed for the day”, and he agreed–and thanked me 🙂.

The store guy carried the new one out for me. Here it is.

Things would have gone quicker and been less fiddly if I hadn’t had to do several things twice. You know the old saying “If all else fails, read the instructions”? Kinda like that. I thought I knew what I was doing, so just proceeded to start, without looking at everything and thinking through all the steps. And the first step was obviously to drop the new battery into the well and attach the cables to the positive terminal. Right?

Wrong. I decided the next thing was to put this thingy

back. I expected getting it positioned correctly to give me some trouble, but it just would NOT go in right. I finally figured out something was in the way, and had to remove the battery (first taking off the cables from the positive terminal) in order to get at whatever it was. It turned out to be the doohicky that connected the outgassing tube to the battery, so yeah. Shoulda done that first.

Doohickey on the battery, battery back in the well, positive cables on–again.

Some electrical tape was coming loose from the top cable, so I found mine and fixed that while I was at it.

So then I decide to check whether one attaches the positive cables or the negative first. A bit late for that, but better late than never, and happily it is indeed the positive cables that go on first.

And with the obstruction out of the way, the other doohickey–which holds the battery down–went into place easily. So I went ahead and put the cable on the negative terminal and tightened it down.

Which I should not have done.

There’s a red plastic cover that fits over everything on the positive terminal, which after loosening and adjusting the cables and (for the third time) tightening the cables down I was able to get into place.

At this point I’m starting to feel pretty good, like I’m on the homestretch. Until I try putting the metal plate that covers the whole thing into place. When it becomes clear that the cable on the negative terminal has to be turned about 100 degrees clockwise so the cable emerges from the well in the correct place.

That accomplished, with only minor muttering, I head to the hardware store to get a bolt so the plate will be held in place by four bolts as intended. I don’t know whether the fourth bolt was never there or had somehow gotten lost over the eight years I’ve had the van, but I wanted all four in place.

With minor fiddling, the plate got put in. You can see which bolt is the new one. They didn’t have it with a star head, so it’s a hex head. Which means two different screwdriver bits are now necessary to remove that plate.

And then the floor mat, in and secured.

And we have liftoff!

So to speak.

My back complained a bit the next morning–all that working at weird angles and lifting the battery in and out and around–but some ibuprofen and just moving around and it’s back to its regular level of muttering in the background.

At this point, the van has been thoroughly vetted by the dealer, it has brand new tires, and a new battery. It should be well ready for another long trip next year. Newfoundland, here we come! Or that’s the plan.