Battery Holdens-Chev MCP 216 engine

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

When I bought my 1940 Chevrolet - Holdens constructed cabin it did not come with a battery. The engine is a 216. It is a modified civilian pattern truck. The truck saw life as a farm vehicle in Queensland after it left the Army so things have been modified or taken off.

I just found a sheet of tin on the driver's floor that lifts up. It looks like a "farmer's special" adaptation with a door hinge fixing it to the floor. Below the tin lid I found a steel frame that looks like a battery cage. There is no top or clamp to hold down the battery and no wires or battery clamps.

The battery would be a six volt?

Does anyone in Australia run a similar vehicle?
If so what brand of battery are you running?
What product code is it?
What are its dimensions?
Where in the truck was the battery hooked up?
Does the battery have any clamps or lids/covers?
What earth do the Chevrolet's run? Positive or Negative Earth?

Does anyone have a battery in place that can be photographed?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, and thanks for your help


Kind Regards
Lionel

[cliff]

the underfloor box is the original battery location. From memory battery was just small enough to fit in.

[gjamo]

A discussion on 6 volts batteries as fitted to early Holdens is in this link .
I reckon the same battery would go really close to fitting.

http://oldholden.com/node/61266

[motto]

The battery holder is in its correct place under the drivers side floor and appears to be fairly original.
The battery must have been a neat fit and filled the holder completely as is indicated by the clamping arrangement at the rear left hand corner.
On the L/L truck the cab floor would have to be removed to get the battery out although there was a small access plate in the floor to allow battery servicing. I think the Holden cab was similar in that respect.
On my L/L truck I put the battery on the outside of the chassis just aft of the running board to make life a little easier. I installed a brake booster where the battery was originally.

David

[Mike Kelly]

I have two 1940 15 cwt civilian pattern utes and both have the battery located in the same location that your vehicle has.

Both of my Chevs are pretty stuffed . The 1940 models are particularly hard to find , very few of them stayed behind in Aust. Mine are both ex CFA and the chassis numbers are almost sequential.


I need a repairable cab the fixed windscreen type .

A chap in Diamond Creek has a very original 1940 15 cwt ( or 1/2 ton pickup in the USA ) model, unrestored . I was offered this vehicle at one time but at 7K $ , I declined . What is interesting is, it has a GMH made wooden body fitted rather than the ute style bodywork . It is ex army as he has found D /I\ D markings on the engine rebuild plate . I lost his contact details .

The 1940 model has a slightly shorter chassis compared to the ubiquitous 1941-47 models .

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

I have two 1940 15 cwt civilian pattern utes and both have the battery located in the same location that your vehicle has.

Both of my Chevs are pretty stuffed . The 1940 models are particularly hard to find , very few of them stayed behind in Aust. Mine are both ex CFA and the chassis numbers are almost sequential.


I need a repairable cab the fixed windscreen type .

A chap in Diamond Creek has a very original 1940 15 cwt ( or 1/2 ton pickup in the USA ) model, unrestored . I was offered this vehicle at one time but at 7K $ , I declined . What is interesting is, it has a GMH made wooden body fitted rather than the ute style bodywork . It is ex army as he has found D /I\ D markings on the engine rebuild plate . I lost his contact details .

The 1940 model has a slightly shorter chassis compared to the ubiquitous 1941-47 models .

Hello Mike,

Can you take some photographs of the cover and battery area of your truck? The base of my truck has rusted out.

Can you please let me know where to look for the chassis number on a Holdens assembled Chevy? I have had a number of attempts at looking for it and have not been able to locate it. The next question would be having established the chassis number would it be possible to locate the ARN from that?

I do realise that engines and chassis get swapped over in service and in civilian life. However, a chassis number would be a good place to start the search at.

There is the faint outline of an ARN on the bonnet however when I wrote to the AWM they said that it was probably a combination of a number of different ARNs over-painted on top of each other and no such number existed on their records.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello Cliff, Graeme, David and Mike,

Thank you for your responses. Much appreciated.

So would that bolt in the top left hand corner of the last photograph be a pinch bolt that tightened the metal strap around the battery to hold it snug? Would this be the only way the battery was held down? As in, with no bar going over the top of the battery that is held down to the frame by two "J" bolts with wing-nuts?

I crawled under the truck in the daylight and found out that the bottom and sides of my battery box were made by Bodgey Brothers. The side braces are made up of two old long door hinges, with a bit of wound up fencing wire to tighten the sides together. The base is a piece of timber - with door hinge either end of it to space out the door hinge sides once the wire has been twitched tight. Then there is some tin on top of the wood which the battery sits on.

How were the original battery boxes made? Were they made up of a "C" shape where the two sides and bottom are folded from a single piece of sheet metal?

If anyone has a photograph of an original battery box they could post up on this thread it would be great?

Kind Regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I visited a US based Chevrolet parts retailer and found a floor cover for the battery and also the battery holder. The parts are listed for Chevrolet & GMC trucks for 1939-1946. The question is are these the same parts used by Holdens when the rolling chassis arrived in Australia and the cabins were locally manufactured?

Can someone let me know if these parts look similar to an Australian owned vehicles? I cannot see a door hinge or pieces of fencing wire anywhere in the photographs

Kind Regards
Lionel

[Mike Kelly]

I will take a few pics for you. But You have a larger 30 cwt ? truck and it may have had different battery mounts ? The floor in the utes here is a pressed steel panel .

One of my cabs had a hit on the rear quarter and its pretty well stuffed it . The prang also bent the chassis and somebody has done a backyard fix that looks horrific .

The other ute has chronic rust problems , the cab is paper thin all over, even the chassis has rusted away in places . This one has the remains of the wooden ute frame and the steel side panels and rear guards .

My plan was . Make a AIF Midde East vehicle as the 6th Div. used quite a lot of 1940 models overseas . But it all takes time .

[Lionelgee]

Hello Mike,

Thanks for the photographs of your ute.

Do you have any hints where to look for the chassis number.

I am still trying to work out the weight capacity of my truck.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[motto]

Lionel, the repro battery holder appears to have more in common with the one in Mike's ute than the one used on the trucks. The forward end of the holder in the ute appears to be braced off the cross member.
The truck ones are mounted entirely off the chassis with an additional strut at the front similar to the rear for vertical loads and another diagonal strut to stop flexing in the fore and aft direction.
The pinch bolt is also much longer on the repro holder, similar to the one in Mike's ute.
The little corrugated cross piece at the front is common to both and can only be there as a stone guard.
The basic construction is similar with the battery sitting on a pressed and folded sheet metal support riveted to the brackets at each end.
The floor cover for the battery is what the L/L trucks had and it was only large enough for servicing access, not for battery removal.

David

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by motto

Lionel, the repro battery holder appears to have more in common with the one in Mike's ute than the one used on the trucks. The forward end of the holder in the ute appears to be braced off the cross member.
The truck ones are mounted entirely off the chassis with an additional strut at the front similar to the rear for vertical loads and another diagonal strut to stop flexing in the fore and aft direction.
The pinch bolt is also much longer on the repro holder, similar to the one in Mike's ute.
The little corrugated cross piece at the front is common to both and can only be there as a stone guard.
The basic construction is similar with the battery sitting on a pressed and folded sheet metal support riveted to the brackets at each end.
The floor cover for the battery is what the L/L trucks had and it was only large enough for servicing access, not for battery removal.

David

Hello David,

Thanks for pointing out the differences. There is another 1940 Chev truck here in Bundaberg - a full civilian version. However, the owner changed his unit from 6 to 12 volts and completely removed the whole 6 volt system; including battery cage, decades ago. I might ask if he keep the parts - cross fingers.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[motto]

Lionel, I think that your battery rack should be able to be recovered as it has not so much been butchered as added to. So long as the frame is in reasonable condition the only part that needs replacement is the folded sheet metal which is 16 gauge x 4 inches wide, folded up at each end and riveted to the frame.
The most difficult part is the fact that there are rivets involved both in its construction and attachment to the chassis.
I threw my rack away 30 odd years ago as I considered it a silly place to put a battery and I came up with a better one to put on the outside of the chassis.

David