Henry J battery

[51HJ]

Can someone tell me the original manufacture that made the battery  for  a 1951 Henry J. ? And was their name imprinted on the side of the battery. Thanks

[darrin145]

Willard. Yes on the imprint. Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong!

Gary.

[Fid]

You can get one here -

http://www.antiqueautobattery.com/batteries/other/G1W.html

I don't know if these are any good, or if you can get them through other channels so you may want to see if others respond before ordering.

[darrin145]

Fid - These batteries are great! No acid, no water, no corrosion! I put one in my '57 T-bird, after restoration, it is amazing. They run about $250, (for the Ford "power punch" 12 volt) but well worth it. They look identical to original equipment, caps and all, but they are all electronic on the inside. The Darrin will get one before spring.

Gary.

[Terry T]

I bought a Willard from them for my Darrin.
Keep it on a Battery Tender.
It lasted 18 months.
It is now on a display shelf below my Willard sign.
Money not wll spent.

[Fid]

Appreciate your thoughts gentlemen. I've never purchased a battery from that site, however, I did purchase several custom made battery cables from them, all of which I had to repair myself and 2 which were wrong the first time and had to go back and be exchanged for what I had actually asked for. The one, which is on Weas' 1951 Kaiser was the worst. They sent the wrong cable first, then sent what I had asked but when I was installing it, the head fell right off it!  A propane torch and some thick solder fixed it well and it's still on the car today doing its job but not every owner has those tools and the skills to use them.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The original battery used on Kaiser, Frazer and Henry J automobiles was an Auto-Lite 100ah type 1 case tar top (with the screw off caps).  The casing was molded with the Auto-Lite name and associated lettering (check out an issue of MOTOR AGE or MoToR garage magazines for picutres).

Willard was a secondary supplier that was rarely, if ever used on production cars.   Fred walker pushed Exide because that was the only brand of battery he could get to sell back in the 1980's.

Tractor Supply Company (TSC) stores have a 6 volt tar top.  If you put it in the holder with the TSC Decal side facing the inner fender (so it cannot be seen) it looks original and the threaded openings for the cells will accomidate K-F Sav-A-Battery filler caps, which, by the way do work.

[darrin145]

Terry - Was that Willard battery an Optima inside or the electronic power cell?

Gary.

[Terry T]

I do not know--what ever Antique Battery puts inside.

[darrin145]

Terry - Antique Auto Battery makes batteries with either the "Optima" style battery inside or their electronic power cell inside. They have told me, in past conversations, that neither will respond well to a battery tender or trickle charger. If it's the Optima style, you may be able to rejuvenate the battery by hooking a "regular" 6 volt battery to it in parallel and then using a good battery charger to charge the "regular" battery. The electronic power unit style requires charging with 10 amps (no more than 15 amps) for 2 hours. It would be interesting to see if the old battery could be brought back to life!

Gary.

[Terry T]

too late---the top developed a crack sitting on a shelf!!

[Henry's HenryJs]

I read a post somewhere that someone has two 6V batteries in series to make 12V and runs the rest of the car on 6V(searched again but did not find it). Any info on the batteries and where are they installed? Thanks, Henry.

[Corsairdeluxe]

I've seen one of these. It works how well I do not know.

http://www.texasindustrialelectric.com/relays_1119844_6V.asp

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

As far as Henry J's were concerned, the Auto-Lite 100 amp/hour type 1 case was used, but there are bits of info that suggest K-F had tapped Williard as a back-up supplier in 1947 and again in the 1949 model year.  I don't know if any batteries were actually installed in cars though.  the 1949 use was predicated on K-F building over 200,000 cars in calendar 1949; they didn't even make 60, 000 for the calendar year 1949 and roughly 25,000 or so were Traveler & Vagabond combined.