1989 GMC Tracker Battery Question

rob243 · 10-27-2009, 09:12 PM

Hi all, been visiting this place as a guest for awhile finally decided to sign up little history have had 2 swifts 93, and 94, and drove them to the point of no return LOOOOOOOVED the cars, reliable as daisy's in the spring and never had to do anything to them other then routine maintenance. They started out what I hope will be a life long love affair with Suzuki.

I am not a big gearhead but can get by, I work in IT, and deal a lot in computers, I recently came across 10 nice HP desktops, and have been selling them out. Oddly enough one of the people who bought one, had a 1989 Tracker, and I joked around with the guy that I would trade him 2 more PC's for it, well low and behold a week later he called me up, and the truck was mine for 2 computers I paid nothing for.

2dr tin top, frame is solid, but the the body needs some love. Long story short I redid the brakes, the plugs, wires, distributor, oil change fuel/air filter general tune up she is purring like a kitten now. I am getting rid of my 97 sunfire, and I was wondering if I could use the battery from the sunfire in my truck as the one in the truck is older, and I replaced the sunfire battery last year...would it cause it any harm to the alternator, or is there any risk to doing this. Worse case I will just wait it out, and buy a new one, but it would be nice to recovery the batter from the GM, its still got 4 years on the warranty.

Anyway great place you got here, and any thoughts insight would be greatly appreciated.

mongoosevrx · 10-27-2009, 10:04 PM

As long as the terminals were the same(no mods required), any battery in a free car would be ok with me.

fordem · 10-28-2009, 12:06 AM

Going in the direction you're going - from a car with a 2.2 engine to one with a 1.6 engine, you'll probably be just fine (bigger engines need a bit more juice to crank them), so as long as it fits and the lugs match up I'd say go right ahead.

Bex · 10-28-2009, 05:50 AM

Ah, just one caveat. I don't know the physical size of the battery that you are going to use, but if you have a bit of rust etc., as you say you do, check the plate where the battery will sit. The original Tracker batter is pretty light. My battery plate was kind of rusty - I got a battery from a Toyota hilux (a big, heavy battery) that I've been using, but noticed that the plate where it sat was not quite strong enough for the battery - the battery was moving around, etc., and I had to reinforce the plate and put 'sides' on it, so the battery wasn't shifting so much. electrically, however, the bigger battery is fine.

deeznutts77 · 10-28-2009, 06:22 AM

will work just fine, i put a 1000cca bat in mine with fact alt. no probs, now i have a gm 80 amp alt with said bat even better!!

rob243 · 10-28-2009, 11:51 AM

Wow...that was fast thanks alot guys, unfortunately the terminals on the wires don;t match. An earlier poster said so long as you don;t mod the wiring, what if I actually replaced the battery wires completely? I was thinking about doing it anyway, also is this a big job or something that can be done in an afternoon thanks

Bex · 10-28-2009, 02:38 PM

Do you mean that new battery has negative terminal on bottom right (rather than left) when installed in car? Frankly, for me at least, I suppose I would not fool around with modifying wires, lengthening harness, etc, in order to get wires to match battery. Too much room for error, and frankly, quite a tedious job. My own opinion, just go out and get proper battery. Old saying: A job not worth doing, is not worth doing well.....

fordem · 10-28-2009, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob243

Wow...that was fast thanks alot guys, unfortunately the terminals on the wires don;t match. An earlier poster said so long as you don;t mod the wiring, what if I actually replaced the battery wires completely? I was thinking about doing it anyway, also is this a big job or something that can be done in an afternoon thanks

It would depend on the type of modification required.

Replacing the leads is not going likely to be a quick and easy job - I've never looked at an 89 Tracker, but on both of my Suzukis (a Swift and a GV) the battery leads are integrated into the wiring harness making their replacement a matter of stripping out the harnesses, unwrapping them replacing the cables, crimping in terminals and then rewrapping.

If you're talking about the lugs positions being different as Bex has suggested - you might have enough slack in the harness to get away with it - when I bought my GV, that is how it was, with a 6" extension bolted in between the battery negative strap and the firewall - that has since been corrected.

If you're talking about different size lugs, small posts rather than large I've seen lead shims wrapped around the small posts - I don't like it (it's one more place for corrosion to occur) but it works.

If you're talking side lugs vs top lugs - I think you're talking new connectors so unless you plan to keep on using that style battery I'd say forget it.

HotTommy · 10-28-2009, 05:08 PM

Perhaps the only thing worse than no answer is too many answers. I have an 89 Tracker tin top too. My battery cables are very simple with the negative cable running to ground where the starter bolts to the engine, and the positive cable running to the solenoid on the starter. There are two small wires running directly to the positive battery terminal for things like the radio memory. I see no reason why you couldn't replace the main cables with generic replacements of the correct length, provided you also crafted a way to connect the smaller wires to the replacement cables. ... With all these answers, there should be one you like.