308 Battery Removal

I use a battery lift tool. I like my back too much to try lifting things wrong anymore.

 

Hmm. Is the clamp loose?

I just (this weekend) replaced a one sixth dead Optima with an Interstate in my 328. (I just now got done buttoning it up after doing an "angles and dangles" run to make sure the new battery was clamped down tightly.)

I put a couple of car polishing towels on the fender so I could lean on it, but mostly I put my elbows on the fiberglass shroud under the hatch and just did a kind of forearm curl to lift out the Optima. Putting the Interstate in was easier -- it's lighter. (Seemed so, at least -- maybe I was just "warmed up".) (BTW: I'm in my 50s. But I'm tall, so once I lean over the fender, I'm not all that far off the centerline.)

The Optima has its own strap built in; but for the Interstate, I used the battery lift strap included with the 328's tool kit (Red plastic strap with two metal clamps to grab the two top posts.)

 

Use a battery lifting strap and resist the temptation to leverage your strength using the fender/wing top, For leverage use the metal below the windshield. Once you've established the battery is secure in the strap by llifting it an inch or two off the chassis, firmly, smoothly and quickly lift it out and over the fender. Always disconnect the negative side first when disconnecting.

 

The only "metal below the windscreen" on a 328 is under the fiberglass shroud inside the front compartment. (The side fender wouldn't work with a battery strap -- the strap runs right to left, so your lever point has to be aft of the battery. I just put the towels on the fender so I could lean over it.)

Otherwise +1.

When reconnecting, connect the negative last. You want the battery circuit interrupted when swinging a metal wrench on the plus terminal -- just in case you contact the metal car frame at some point with the wrench. (A lesson I learned the hard way on an older Alfa.)

Both the 308 and 328 show covers for the positive cable connector. That seems to have gotten itself misplaced from my 328 over the years. So I stripped the "rubber" handle off a cheap ice scraper and made a new one, tie-wrapped to the plus cable. It ain't pretty, but it covers the positive terminal. (And I don't need that many ice scrapers in the DC area compared to Boston metro. (Especially as both the house and the office have garages.))

I did briefly toy with the idea of using a line let down from above the car to lift the battery out, but there wasn't a good hard point in the garage ceiling above the car to use. And the battery would rotate freely, dangling from a line, so you'd still need to align it.

The battery strap is probably the easiest answer. The tool kit in the 328 includes one. I just checked the '78 parts catalog, and it seems the 308 doesn't supply one. You should be able to get one at any auto supply store. They're not complicated, so they shouldn't be expensive.
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The Optima had a built-in strap -- but I found the hard way that a red top isn't a good choice for a car that sits out the icy months.
(Tops out at 10.4 volts -- only five of the six cells, I guess.)