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I am planning to replace the battery tray on my 77 Toronado as it is in pretty rough shape, in fact I expect the battery to fall right out one day if I don't fix this problem. I have found a number of universal trays that might do the trick but I don't know the size and my car is tucked away in storage facility for the winter with no access to it for me to measure the existing tray. Does anyone have ready access to 75-79 Toronado that you could measure and the post the dimensions for the battery tray.
I am in the process of securing various parts over the winter so I can get right to it when the vehicle comes out of storage in the spring. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Byron, sorry the battery box in my parts car is rotted so badly I can't measure it! You might check with jaunty75 as I know he's been working on his XS. He might be able to help you out. John
77Toronado
Thank you so much for the helping hand. I gather by your user name that you also have a 77 Toronado. Would love to see some pictures of it. What color is it? What is the mileage? How long have you owned it? One good thing is it sounds like you get to at least visit your car frequently. Up here in the Great White North I have mine stored in a classic car storage facility along with some very incredible vehicles. Because of this the operator of the facility does NOT grant visitation rights. You check it in the fall and get it back in the spring by appointment only. Can't say as I blame him and it is good to know that my baby is in a very secure facility - helps me sleep better at night.
Byron
Last edited by ByronF; January 9th, 2018 at 04:18 PM.
I have two of the beasts. My dad gave me his '77 Toronado before he passed away. I found this site while looking for parts for it.
While I was working in Indiana, For some reason, I did a search on Craigslist for any cars or parts nearby. What I found was another '77 Toronado in better shape than the one I had. I drove her home to Florida, doing a tune up at night as I went!
Here they are together. The yellow one was my Dad's:
I told my wife that home values dropped 10% the day I parked them together.
We got brave and drove it to the Olds Homecoming show in Lansing, MI in 2016. You're much closer than we are - you should consider going this year. Lots of nice people. There were more 2nd generation Toronados there, but here's the group I wound up parking with. I'm the 2nd from the right, with the hood down.
Four '77s and a '78. Three XS and two Brougham.
By the way, the '66 in the background on the left? That is THE first Toronado, owned by GM Heritage collection. Other than a picture of the engineers propped on top of the air cleaner, you'd have never known it wasn't someone's personal car.
I love this picture, for where it was taken:
More knowledgeable folks, feel free to correct me here.
This is in Lansing, between the two spans of the MLK Jr Blvd bridges. I believe this is where the output of Lansing Auto Assembly was. After 39 years, I took her back as close as I could to where she was born!
The "new" '77 has a little under 70K miles on it. I bought it in November, 2015 from a really nice guy in Indiana. The adventure of driving that car home and doing a tune up and troubleshooting en route is one of the coolest things I've ever done.
... and yes, in the south, we're lucky to not have to put our cars away for good for part of the year.
I keep these guys about 1.5 hours from where I live. I see and check on them about every week. That's why battery tray info has to wait until after this weekend.
Thanks so much for posting the photos of your twin Toronado's. Sure is neat that you can park 2 big cars the size of ocean liners in your driveway. During the summer I get to do the same thing. I park the 77 Toronado beside my 72 Eldorado. Of course that is when my wife wants me to move one to get her car out of the garage. Sad that my old classics have to sit outside while her little Equinox gets a garage bay. Oh well.
Having to do a tune up on the drive home with your purchase sounds like a story I would love to hear of you wish to share.
Byron
Universal battery trays typically come in one or two sizes, not dozens of them. The battery in my '78 measures about 9 inches by 6.5 inches, length and width. The universal battery tray I'm using measures about 14 inches by 8 inches. So, yes, the battery is swimming on this tray. But that doesn't matter, because all that the tray part does is provide something for the battery to sit on. It's the bracket that goes up over the top of the battery that secures it to the tray. Just make sure the new tray is securely attached to the car. The new bracket will do the rest.
This is the battery tray I bought for my car. From Autozone. It's the only one they sell. $5.99. Made of plastic. It won't rust.
I bought the battery clamp and hold-down hardware separately.
One question, though, is do you really have to buy the new tray now? It's not like you need a long lead time to order one of these. They're sitting in blister packs on the rack at the auto parts store. When you get your car out of storage, measure the tray that's there or what's left of it, and then run down to the store to buy one that will work.
Last edited by jaunty75; January 10th, 2018 at 07:16 PM.
I believe all XS's are Brougham's. At least, my XS says "Brougham" on the insides of the doors. Also, the dealer invoice for the car, which I obtained from the GM Heritage Center, shows the car to be a "Toronado Brougham Coupe" with the Y73, "Toronado XS Package."
All of you folks with '77 and later Oldsmobiles really should spend the $50 and get the dealer invoice for your car.
Note the VIN at the upper left. Ends in 700005. Yes, my car is apparently the 5th Toronado off the line for 1978. I wrote to the Heritage Center and asked them if they could tell me, without me having to buy each invoice, if Toros with VINs 700001 through 700004 were or were not XS's. It would have been cool to know if my car was possibly the FIRST XS built for 1978. But the answer is no. They told me that, for reasons unknown, they have no invoices for VINs 700001 and 700002, and that BOTH 700003 and 700004 had the XS package. So my car is, at best, the third XS off the line that year. Still pretty cool.
Last edited by jaunty75; January 10th, 2018 at 07:22 PM.
The "new" '77 has a little under 70K miles on it. I bought it in November, 2015 from a really nice guy in Indiana. The adventure of driving that car home and doing a tune up and troubleshooting en route is one of the coolest things I've ever done.
You should tell us the story! (Maybe in its own thread).
Dang it! I KNEW there was something I was forgetting yesterday.
I promise pics and measurements this next weekend.
I've been thinking about the details from that trip home. I've got to get some of that stuff written down before I forget it again. I've been shaking my head at some of this stuff. I'll get it all straight and put it in its proper place.
77Toronado would really like to hear the story of doing a tune up and troubleshoot en route.
Jaunty75 thanks for the pictures of the battery tray. Never thought of a plastic tray and cant say that I have seen one in the local parts supply store. Will have to check that out. I realize that spring is a long way away but I am keen to build a stockpile of parts to have ready for when the car comes out of storage. More importantly I have created a list of necessary "to do" items so I am working on gathering the parts for that list. I know me and I can occasionally get diverted easily and could well spend my budget on non essentials - so the safe thing to do is stick to the list and have all the parts on hand and the funds spent.
Byron
You can go right to the source for a battery tray. Fusick sells them for the '77 Toronado. $59.50. That's ten times what I paid for my plastic one, but, you know, I ordered one. I just would rather have something that matches the original as much as possible. I'll keep the plastic one for when this one rusts out in 2058 and Fusick isn't making them any more.
When I was looking for a replacement tray, I never thought to consider Fusick because they typically don't have much for the post-1975 Oldsmobiles. But it seems they are getting more and more parts for these cars, or at least recognizing that parts that will fit the '75 and earlier models might also happen to fit later models if they would only take the time to check.
Thank you for the lead on the battery tray. I checked their site earlier along with many others and could not find that part so I figured universal was the only way to go. Normally I would prefer something that looked factory original but in this case I am not so sure. At $59 USD plus shipping, exchange, customs and taxes this part ends up over $100 CDN $. Nobody will ever see it but me. On the other hand I recently purchased a used GM factory original radio, to replace the non standard radio in the car. Even with the all the costs including having it rebuilt to operating condition, I can justify in my mind doing this because it visible to anyone who looks in the car and adds to its originality. I am still intrigued by the plastic tray you pointed out. I am going to have to look around in local parts stores to see if they have them. Again I appreciate all the leads and information you have provided.
I received the Fusick battery tray. Haven't had a chance to put it in yet. The maximum battery size that will fit in it is 10.25 inches by 6.75 inches.
I was able to get the correct battery hold-down hardware from ebay to go with the new battery tray. It came with this unusual extra piece that I've seen in photos of other Toro engine compartments but that I did not have. I'm glad I could find a photo of one installed because I might otherwise not have known how to do so. (No, I haven't checked the manual yet, and I would have done so if I couldn't find a photo.) I've never seen a "weight adjuster" before. It's made of plastic and goes across the top of the battery under the L-clamps on either end of the metal bracket.
It says "weight adjuster do not discard" at the top, "use on battery top" in the middle, and "for some applications" on the bottom. The vertical piece says "this side up."
Here's a photo of one installed on a '77 Toro. If I hadn't seen one in photos of other cars, and if one hadn't come with the hardware kit I just got, I would never have thought that something was missing.
Note that the one in the photo below is a little different from the one I received in that the vertical part where it says "this side up" is wider. Mine looks a little flimsier.
Now isn't that interesting! I have never seen anything like that before and it would never have occurred to me that it would be necessary. Still trying to figure out what it is supposed to do. If it is a weight adjuster I would have thought that the end with the 2 bars would be mounted so they were on the opposite side of the battery terminals perhaps to balance the weight of the posts? If that is the intent then the unit in the photo would seem to be installed incorrectly?
The only thing I could find in the '78 service manual was in the section on battery cable routing. It shows the battery hold-down hardware, and this weight adjuster thing is not shown.
I also like how they show a battery with removable caps, like you might have seen in the '50s and '60s. Weren't we using the sealed batteries by the late '70s?
I'm betting it's just because the batteries were physically shrunk in height at some point. Just a spacer to take up the slack and allow the stock battery hold down to still work?
I also bet that drawing hadn't been updated since the early 70's. I didn't start driving until the mid 80's, but all of the AC Delco batteries I remember my Dad buying were sealed, with the green eye on them. I believe K-mart was his preferred source.
Wow, a K-Mart with an automotive service department.
I'm betting it's just because the batteries were physically shrunk in height at some point. Just a spacer to take up the slack and allow the stock battery hold down to still work?
I think this is correct. I installed the new battery tray and hold down today. Photo below. It's not perfect, and there is another difference between the "weight bracket" in the photo I showed above (message #21) where it is installed in an engine compartment and the one I received (also shown in message #21). In the installed one, the crossbar nearest the front of the car is wider. The one I got has the three crossbars all pretty much the same length.
Note also in the photo in message 21 the L-brackets on the metal piece are offset. Mine is that way, too. They're not directly opposite each other. This is not an issue if the hold-down can reach down to the battery. But in the photo and in my car, the battery is not tall enough, and the L-brackets will not reach down to it. Thus the plastic piece is required.
Here's mine installed. It isn't perfect, but if I want to use the original hold-down bracket, I need to use the plastic piece. Everything is snug and tight, but it's not 100% pretty. But the bracket is correct. And isn't that new battery tray just gorgeous? If only you could see it! (Trust me, it's beautiful.)
Last edited by jaunty75; February 5th, 2018 at 03:04 PM.
January 3rd, 2018, 11:22 AM
