'97 GP: Difficulty of changing battery?

This may seem a silly question, but how hard is it to change the battery in a '97 Grand Prix GT? It died the other day and had to be hauled into the shop. Now I'm left with a choice of having them drop in a new battery (and most likely paying an installation fee) or just having them jump me, driving it home, and doing it myself. I might also be able to make it to someplace like Pep Boys, who I think does free installations.

Anyway, since I can't see the car myself, I'd like to know what I'd be getting into. Is the battery's placement of the sort that you can change it in five minutes with nothing more than a wrench, or of the sort that you need to use a bunch of specialized tools to disassemble half the engine to gain access? I can probably handle anything that doesn't require unusual tools, but I'm not interested in taking an hour to do so.

Thanks!

Regards, Bob

Reply to
Robert Williams
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Even if you were to jump a without a battery I don't think that the car will run with out a battery. It kind of filters out the spikes the alternator produces. Changing it shouldn't be hard. I did it during my lunch break (less that an hour) on my old Toyota. Just remember to remove the Negative (black) cable first, and reattach it last. That way if you slip with the wrench on the positive terminal it won't "fuse" the wrench to what ever you hit on the body. You may need new cables or battery terminals, depending on how much corrosion is present.

Reply to
John Karpich

Its a easy job. You'll need a 8mm or 5/16 wrench and a 13mm socket with about a 8 inch extension and ratchet. I couldn't see the shop charging much to install that.

Reply to
scrapir

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