Ok, I have a new battery ready to go, but i cannot get the damn old one out. i finally (after a lot of effort) managed to remove the stupid cross bar blocking it in but the battery is still pretty stuck in there and I can't pry it out. Any tips or advice?

There's no real "trick" other than disconnecting the battery, removing the bolt that holds that battery down, and wiggling it out.

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Where is this bolt located relatively on the battery and what should I use to remove it? I'm at college so I don't really have any tools with me besides a hammer and a wrench but I can probably go to the hardware store if need be.

The battery on these cars is a royal PITA. The holdown is a bar bolted at each end to the battery tray. Look on the side of the battery facing the engine, look all the way down to the base of the battery. At each end of the bar is a 13mm bolt at an angle. You may only need to loosen those bolts and pull the bar out a little. Thats the easy part. If the battery is physically smaller than the origanal one you may get it out without moving the electrical box. Otherwise you will have to unbolt the ground wire in front of the battery, the pos. cable on top of the electrical box, and disconnect several plugs as well. Then unbolt the electrical box and lift it up. Separate the plastic halves by prying gently on the tabs on each side. Now take a 7mm socket and unbolt the bigg ass electrical plug on the end. the other 3? bigg ass plugs can stay as they are. Now take the electrical box and lay it on top of the engine out of the way. You should now have room to shoehorn the battery out of its hole. I think the rearmost hold down bolt is easier to acces now also.

Told you it's a PITA

thanks for your help. i appreciate it.

No easy way other than unbolting the electrical box & moving it aside while you pull the old battery out & put the new one in. (Helps to have an assistant)

One suggestion is to buy an Optima Battery (Red35, SC75 or similar). They're sealed and can be tipped any angle when installed & removed.

I got how to install the battery out of the GM Servive Manual that you can access at the top of this website. Great reference guide with pictures.

Costco carrys the Optima SC75 for around $124 & it fits great (& looks cool!)