Got the call this morning. “Wah, the car won't start, I had to leave it at so and so's house, wah wah wah I need a new battery” Turns out that with a quick jiggling of the battery cables she started right up. It's not a battery problem.

But... the battery is about four years old, which made be curious about a replacement. There's a proper looking CarQuest Group 46 in there right now (a quick check of the archives explained why it replaced a less than 1 year old DieHard batt). With that in mind, I checked with Kragen (a.k.a. Checkers, a.k.a. Shucks, a.k.a. Grand), Sears, and CarQuest.

To appease the friend, I took it to Kragen and had them test it. For whatever that's worth, the little hand held unit suggested that the battery be replaced.

Sears had a Group 46 for $99 (DieHard).

Kragen had a Group 24 for $50 (Exide). PBTC was swamped, but checked his book and didn't see a Group 46 listed anywhere.

CarQuest has a Group 24F for $50 (Interstate). PBTC called Interstate who spat out a P/N for the 24F as a direct replacement for the 46.

Already leery of DieHard batteries, I wasn't about to recommend that the friend drop $100 to replace what seems to be a working battery. The G24 battery fits, but doesn't have the same tie-down stuff. A quick check online revealed that the 24-F battery has the terminals in a different position.

Soo.....

• The 88+ 240s have a different battery tray? Does it use a more common battery?


• Does anything other than the Group 46 have those knobby things on the short side of the battery?