How do I get the battery out?!

[Frances]

Handbook has gone walkies and I need to put my battery on trickle charge - any clues as to how I extract it from the passenger footwell without shortcircuiting all other dangling wires, or cutting the harness?!!

[malman]

Try this

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/shpub/Griff_Chimp_sample.html

Should have stuff about removal down the bottom.

Hope it helps

[clint888]

Handbook has gone walkies and I need to put my battery on trickle charge - any clues as to how I extract it from the passenger footwell without shortcircuiting all other dangling wires, or cutting the harness?!!

Get Leven Technology's trickle charger. It plugs into cigarette lighter and you can forget all flat battery etc problems.

[shpub]

malman said: Try this

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/shpub/Griff_Chimp_sample.html

Should have stuff about removal down the bottom.

Hope it helps

Better off going direct to www.tvrbooks.co.uk and downloading the Griff/Chimp sample chapter. The site has been rehosted. The ourworld location is still up but won't get updated. Until Compuserve sort out my access problems with it I can't update it.

steve

[Ferret Boy]

Err without wishing to sound (particularly) dim...
how do you trickle charge a car battery from the cigarette lighter, which itself runs off the battery??
Surely all you are doing is circulating the charge and losing some through the inefficiency of the wiring etc?

[M@H]

Umm.. you are adding a current to the overall circuit, much the same as the alternator does, therefore adding a charging current to the battery

Cheers
Matt.

[malman]

You don't run the trickle charger off the cigarette lighter socket. You run it off the mains but use the cigarette socket as a connector to the battery instead of croc clips. Most cigarette lighters are constant feed so you don't need to turn on ignition to get a circuit to the battery. You have to be careful not to put too much juice through it, 6amps max I think but I'm sure someone here (Mr Heath please step forward) will know the exact rating.

[manek]

Last time I replaced the ciggie lighter fuse, it was a blue one (15A). Wouldn't like to put that much juice through it though.

[the dodger]

Cigar lighter has a heating element so will be quite a high current draw. According to the Gospel of St.Heath the fuse should be 15A - or 30A if combined with heated mirrors. That said, I would still restrict charging through this connector to a 'trickle' (i.e. less than 1A). Best trickle charger on market is the Optimax which monitors battery condition, charges/discharges so keeps battery healthy.

[shpub]

According to Mr Heath (I've just asked him) you can put several amps through that connection. Modern fast charge chargers will exceed that and shouldn't use this method.

All this is covered in the sample chapter including alternative charging points and their problems.

Steve

[beljames]

I bought an Accumate and connect it to the cigarette lighter, with the adaptor they sell - which presumably they wouldn't if it didn't work / was dangerous.

It changed my life.

No - really. It has.

[Frances]

Thanks forall the useful info - car now safely ensconced and not flat yet!
Frances