Replacing the battery in Montana/Venture

Wait till daylight, jumpstart the vehicle, go to where you bought the battery, let them install it. If you bought it from some wholesale place, take it back. Go someplace where they'll install it for you.

Best advice ever. I changed one here in the summer at the garage. I was willing to donate a testicle to science instead of replacing another one of those SOB's. Looks like GM is taking cues from Chrysler in battery placement. Ever change one in a 98+ intrepid, Breeze, etc?? Nasty.

So are you telling him it's done through the wheel well? That's how it's done on the cars you mention there. GW

I've had the battery out of our 98 Montana several times. Admittedly it looks intimidating but if you remove the cover that hides the wiper motor & mechanism (it's held on with clips) and the diagonal tubular brace that's in the way. (one end will be hard to reach and I don't recall what metric wrench or socket I used). The fuse box rested on this brace and the other end was attached to the fender. It's one of those jobs that you look and says that has to be removed to get a "clear" path to get the battery out. If you don't have tools or feel it's not a job you want to tackle, take the advise of the other posters and let someone else do it.

Er, no, just similar in difficulty.

Thanks, that was perfect. Just for the record, you need a 8mm, 10mm and 13mm sockets and about three extension bars. When I got down to it I found that it had leaked all over itself around the positive terminal.

Reading the first couple of answers I was ready to send my wife to the garage and tell them she was a widow, there was no way I was going to a garage and admit that I could not change a battery myself and I did not want her to tell them that she had a husband at home who could not do it. :)

Glad it worked out. Now you are an "expert"!

We finally had a Venture in today, and I realized it's the same as an Olds Silhouette, which is a van I did head gaskets on a few months ago.

It's not that uncommon to have to move that one brace to get batteries out of GM's, btw. Glad you figured it out. GW