Fitting a Battery Brain or Discarnetcor to a Cerbera?
Discussion
Thanks Scott.
The only thing I'm struggling to do is move the battery 180 degrees without causing the negative terminal to move too far back towards the rear of the car and disappear from view through the scuttle/battery panel terminal access hole. (My battery has the terminals on the opposite corners to yours unfortunately)
This route will also require some modification (cutting) of the the scuttle/battery panel to enable access to the Discarnect with my existing battery.
So I think my choices are probably as follows:
1. Change the battery for one which has the negative terminal on the front left hand side.
2. Cut the battery/scuttle panel to allow access to the battery Discarnect fitted to my existing battery, when turned 180 degrees from it's normal position.
3. Alex has already mentioned that the remotely operated 'Battery Brain' can probably be fitted and hidden under the coolant reservoir - I'll have to check the product measurements to confirm.
Decisions, decisions....
Cheers.
The only thing I'm struggling to do is move the battery 180 degrees without causing the negative terminal to move too far back towards the rear of the car and disappear from view through the scuttle/battery panel terminal access hole. (My battery has the terminals on the opposite corners to yours unfortunately)
This route will also require some modification (cutting) of the the scuttle/battery panel to enable access to the Discarnect with my existing battery.
So I think my choices are probably as follows:
1. Change the battery for one which has the negative terminal on the front left hand side.
2. Cut the battery/scuttle panel to allow access to the battery Discarnect fitted to my existing battery, when turned 180 degrees from it's normal position.
3. Alex has already mentioned that the remotely operated 'Battery Brain' can probably be fitted and hidden under the coolant reservoir - I'll have to check the product measurements to confirm.
Decisions, decisions....
Cheers.
Jubes said:
Thanks Scott.
The only thing I'm struggling to do is move the battery 180 degrees without causing the negative terminal to move too far back towards the rear of the car and disappear from view through the scuttle/battery panel terminal access hole. (My battery has the terminals on the opposite corners to yours unfortunately)
Hi JulesThe only thing I'm struggling to do is move the battery 180 degrees without causing the negative terminal to move too far back towards the rear of the car and disappear from view through the scuttle/battery panel terminal access hole. (My battery has the terminals on the opposite corners to yours unfortunately)
I was looking at mine (and considering the same challenges) and one option that sprung to mind was to mount the discarnect thing on the middle terminal of my battery (it has screw on connectors as well as normal connectors) so that then the 'wheel' would be pretty much bang visible in the window of the scuttle.
The other option (I was trying last night on a spare battery) is that the discarnect _can_ be mounted on the positive terminal and then _should_ be in the same places as Scott's - you/I will just need to be careful when unscrewing it as obviously the positive terminal is LIVE.
That said I have to disconnect the positive terminal first anyway currently to safely slide the battery out and it's not shocked me yet, and seeing at most of the car is fibre glass it _should_ be relatively safe.
I'm investigating the Battery Brain thing over the weekend by removing the battery and digging around so will update from there!
Alex
Hi Jubes
Spent another few hours on this and still no ideal solution yet unluckily - here's the output so far.
1. Battery-disconnect
Yes this does fit the positive terminal, however the reciprocal end of the Discarnect is the size of the negative battery terminal head, so the lead from the Cerbera won't fit onto it tightly enough.
I looked at adding some padding to achieve this, but couldn't think of a good conductive material that would work.
2. Battery brain
Well the good news here is that it does appear to fit into the space beneath the Radiator overflow tank.
However I think to get a really good job you'd need to remove the overflow tank so that you can drill the holes to mount the unit to the bodywork which requires a garage and time, neither of which I have at the moment.
I'm thinking of asking my local garage to see if they could do this.
Basically you would mount the Battery Brain as per the 1st picture below, connect the existing +ve cable to this, and then run a second +ve cable from the battery brain to the main battery +ve terminal.
3. Fails
I tried a few methods to fit the Battery Brain to the side of the battery but as you can see it just ain't gonna' work :-)
Any suggestions from the other Cerbera owners much welcome!!!!
Alex
Spent another few hours on this and still no ideal solution yet unluckily - here's the output so far.
1. Battery-disconnect
Yes this does fit the positive terminal, however the reciprocal end of the Discarnect is the size of the negative battery terminal head, so the lead from the Cerbera won't fit onto it tightly enough.
I looked at adding some padding to achieve this, but couldn't think of a good conductive material that would work.
2. Battery brain
Well the good news here is that it does appear to fit into the space beneath the Radiator overflow tank.
However I think to get a really good job you'd need to remove the overflow tank so that you can drill the holes to mount the unit to the bodywork which requires a garage and time, neither of which I have at the moment.
I'm thinking of asking my local garage to see if they could do this.
Basically you would mount the Battery Brain as per the 1st picture below, connect the existing +ve cable to this, and then run a second +ve cable from the battery brain to the main battery +ve terminal.
3. Fails
I tried a few methods to fit the Battery Brain to the side of the battery but as you can see it just ain't gonna' work :-)
Any suggestions from the other Cerbera owners much welcome!!!!
Alex
I Suggest looking at the pictures that you spin the battery 180 degrees, providing the positive wire can reach that far and have the negetive terminal facing out. Then place the battery disconector on the negetive facing towards the front of the car which should alow you to unscrew it through the hole in the scuttle and you should find that the negative connector that connects to the battery is narrower and should fit on the isolator better.
Got one of these Battery Brains the other week and eventually got round to fitting it there on Saturday afternoon.
From what I`d been reading it appeared the expansion tank would be coming out to mount the BB onto the tank support bracket.
Now with the BB came instructions, which highlighted various mounting/connection variations, one of which was chassis/remote mounting, similar to mounting it on the tank bracket.
I was having a look around the engine bay to see if there was anywhere else it could be mounted hence saving me the bother of removing the expansion tank and drilling the bracket etc.
I decided there was loads of room ahead of the battery under the intake box/ducts.
It really was a simple install.
Some double-sided foam tape (not necessarily needed) and a couple of small self-tappers.
All I had to purchase was a positive extension cable from the local Halfords.
The original +ve cable now goes to the BB, and the extension cable comes from the BB to the +ve battery terminal.
Wire up the black ground wire from the BB to the -ve terminal on the battery and voila....works a treat.
It may not be as aesthetically pleasing as hidden away under the tank but the job was made quite a bit easier.
Of course, open to any thoughts/concerns anyone may have as to the BB location - anything I may not have considered.
Will its location make it any more susceptible to heat/water damage as opposed to under the expansion tank.
From what I`d been reading it appeared the expansion tank would be coming out to mount the BB onto the tank support bracket.
Now with the BB came instructions, which highlighted various mounting/connection variations, one of which was chassis/remote mounting, similar to mounting it on the tank bracket.
I was having a look around the engine bay to see if there was anywhere else it could be mounted hence saving me the bother of removing the expansion tank and drilling the bracket etc.
I decided there was loads of room ahead of the battery under the intake box/ducts.
It really was a simple install.
Some double-sided foam tape (not necessarily needed) and a couple of small self-tappers.
All I had to purchase was a positive extension cable from the local Halfords.
The original +ve cable now goes to the BB, and the extension cable comes from the BB to the +ve battery terminal.
Wire up the black ground wire from the BB to the -ve terminal on the battery and voila....works a treat.
It may not be as aesthetically pleasing as hidden away under the tank but the job was made quite a bit easier.
Of course, open to any thoughts/concerns anyone may have as to the BB location - anything I may not have considered.
Will its location make it any more susceptible to heat/water damage as opposed to under the expansion tank.
Juddder said:
I like it! :-)
Seems to be a very sensible solution and I'll give that a go too I think.
For the self tapping screws, did you unbolt the panel and screw them in from the back, or just from the top down?
Hi,Seems to be a very sensible solution and I'll give that a go too I think.
For the self tapping screws, did you unbolt the panel and screw them in from the back, or just from the top down?
Just from the top down, although bolting it through from the back would be more secure - not that I think it will fall off as is.
May yet alter that.
The bolts/nuts would have to be of a fairly small gauge to fit through the mounting holes on the BB.
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