Original Battery, side post or top?

[nyncompute]

I have seen alot of beautifully restored engine compartments and most seem to have the side post connections. Didn't original batteries of the 67-72's have top posts. The Delcos come to mind.

[C203/4]

Mine is a 72 calls for side posts, i have top post batter in it

[Longhorn Man]

71 and newer is side post, 70 and older is top post.

[truckdude239]

my 71 has a top post in it?? i have seen some 71s with top post and some with side

[Longhorn Man]

How hard is it to swap out the cables?
When i was installing the batteries in the longhorn, I had 2 side post batteries laying around, so I went to the junk yard and got all 4 side post cables, all in perfect shape, for 5 bucks or so.
The trouble with side post terminals, is all the inbread ppl who try to undo them with a 12 inch adjustable... or vise grips. Otherwise, they are a perfectly good set up.

[ChevLoRay]

What I see as an issue with side post terminals is that the bolts become corroded and your connection goes away. The later-model vehicles that have stacked side terminal connections are worse. My truck has side terminals because someone put replacement ends on the cables and installed the battery. I've gone through three or four in the 9 years I've owned it and still use side terminal batteries and the same cables that were installed when I bought it.

I guess what I didn't like in the older top post style was the spring-type of battery cable connectors. When they got old, the spring often broke and you had no tension on the post, i.e., a poor connection. Side terminals are usually a tighter fit.