Finally fitted the battery into the boot

[bobfather]

Negative lead daisy-chained to the two bottom rear chassis bolts behind the tank. Positive lead protected by corrugated conduit through the tunnel to the starter motor. Both in 50mm# cable. Original battery lead left in place to power the footwell fuse board.








I'm intending to tidy the footwell but leave all remaining stuff in place, moving the backboard further in so that the equipment is protected and fitting one of these so that foot support is still there

[Belle427]

Nice job.

[Polly Grigora]

Are you going to shout at me if I post up about a big mistake you've made?

Job looks very tidy

[bobfather]

Polly Grigora said:

Are you going to shout at me if I post up about a big mistake you've made?

Job looks very tidy

Pray tell, is it that the battery is too high, raising the centre of gravity, is it that I grounded at the rear of the chassis. Actually, I already know my biggest mistake, I test fitted the battery box to make sure I had clearance with the boot shut. Only problem was, the battery was on my workbench so I couldn't open the boot. Had to connect the battery to the cig lighter socket to get power back

[Polly Grigora]

bobfather said:

Polly Grigora said:

Are you going to shout at me if I post up about a big mistake you've made?

Job looks very tidy

Pray tell, is it that the battery is too high, raising the centre of gravity, is it that I grounded at the rear of the chassis. Actually, I already know my biggest mistake, I test fitted the battery box to make sure I had clearance with the boot shut. Only problem was, the battery was on my workbench so I couldn't open the boot. Had to connect the battery to the cig lighter socket to get power back

Ok then

The battery terminals fitted to the flexi battery cable need to be soldered

The cable conductors are so fine that the battery terminal screws don't clamp them, the screws do grab some conductors but not enough

You will have noticed that the screws in the terminals have bottomed out

Many of the conductors are floating about doing nothing at present which defeats using 50mm cable

A small gas blow torch will be sufficient to heat those terminals and cable up to solder melting point, takes practice though as solder can run too far down the conductors and stiffen the cable

Other option is to crimp eyelets onto the cables and use battery terminals that have studs for cable termination

Didn't want to piss you off but thought it best that I mention it as it matters much

Thank you for not shouting at me

[bobfather]

Polly Grigora said:

Ok then

The battery terminals fitted to the flexi battery cable need to be soldered

Oddly I thought the same thing, they came like that from the supplier so I though I must be mistaken. I shall solder them, I'll fabricate a crucible out of a bit of 15mm copper pipe crimped at one end, melt solder in it and dunk the tails in that. Thanks for spotting that

Edited by bobfather on Saturday 21st May 20:01

[Belle427]

You can buy ferrules for the ends but not sure they would fit in the clamps.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193290858245?chn=ps&amp...

[Badgerchim]

Hi. Great job.
Interested what route and entry and exit points you took to get the positive from the battery down the tunnel to the front.
Ta

[bobfather]

Badgerchim said:

Hi. Great job.
Interested what route and entry and exit points you took to get the positive from the battery down the tunnel to the front.
Ta

Positive lead is 4m of 50mm2 with 8mm eyelet for starter motor terminal post. Fitted into 3m of non-split 16.9mm ID conduit. The route follows the fuel return line existing the boot next to the fuel return pipe in the drivers side rear wheel arch. Avoiding proximity to moving wishbones the conduit protected lead goes straight to the top of the diff cage and follows the top drivers side chassis rail all the way to the Bell housing where it drops down to the bottom drivers side rail. Then it runs the last 1/2m along the top of the bottom rail to the starter motor. You'll need to remove the exhaust. This job would have been easier if I'd used 40mm2 cable with smaller conduit. 40mm2 is more than enough so I'm told

[Badgerchim]

Excellent. Thanks very much.

[NicBowman]

I quite like it in the footwell. My beloved wife has short enough legs not to make it an issue for space. What’s the big advantage?

Nic

[bobfather]

Badgerchim said:

Excellent. Thanks very much.

For info, this is the negative lead daisy chained to the bottom rear chassis bolts

[bobfather]

NicBowman said:

I quite like it in the footwell. My beloved wife has short enough legs not to make it an issue for space. What’s the big advantage?

Nic

For me, the big advantage is footwell space. My wife shares the driving as we use the car for touring holidays. I'm tall enough that the leg space in the passenger footwell is uncomfortable. I am aware that it can be equally uncomfortable to have nothing for your feet to rest on hence I'll be fitting the aluminium footrest above

[Tyre Smoke]

I'm more interested to read what's on the bulkhead.

Swallow...what?


Battery is fine in my footwell. Wife is only 5' and I'm only 5'8", but I admire your effort. I think I might not have sited it on top of the tank though.

[bobfather]

Tyre Smoke said:

I think I might not have sited it on top of the tank though.

I test fitted the battery box in the well on the left side of the boot, this would have been ideal but would not have left enough space for the hard roof section. This was the only alternative I could find. Choosing to keep the cranking power of a standard battery rather than fitting a lower crank AGM was a big problem. This is a large hunk of battery. I have a load spreader steel box section on the bulkhead spreading the load out to the heavier GRP where the upper seatbelt posts are. This was fitted so that I could fit a harness hook for my dog who sits on the parcel shelf. That gave me a solid structure to bracket the battery box to

Edited by bobfather on Sunday 22 May 09:17

[Tyre Smoke]

You make a good point. I'd have spent all day fitting it in the boot on the left. Then all the next day putting it somewhere else!

[glow worm]

bobfather said:

Choosing to keep the cranking power of a standard battery rather than fitting a lower crank AGM was a big problem. This is a large hunk of battery.

For the last 10 years I've found 500 CCA from my Odyssey Extreme to be fine compared to 640 from a Bosch S04. An upgraded starter motor has achieved faster spinning of the engine than any increased CCA.

[Polly Grigora]

bobfather said:

Polly Grigora said:

Ok then

The battery terminals fitted to the flexi battery cable need to be soldered

Oddly I thought the same thing, they came like that from the supplier so I though I must be mistaken. I shall solder them, I'll fabricate a crucible out of a bit of 15mm copper pipe crimped at one end, melt solder in it and dunk the tails in that. Thanks for spotting that

Ok then, the job is a cracker, thank you for taking my input seriously rather than shouting at me

That 50mm² cable has got the volt-drop on the live side very close to the volt-drop on the return side which is very good

You might be interested in the following


https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/battery-terminal-cl...
https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/battery-terminal-cl...


The objective is to make the cable to terminal connection as one so that no man made volt-drop is present

Anyway, happy fast cranking

[indigochim]

Looks great. I keep toying with this for the same reasons as others I sometimes sit on the left and also have some tall mates that don't look super comfortable. Is it really a full size battery the same as in the footwell? it doesn't look that bulky where you have it.

[bobfather]

indigochim said:

Is it really a full size battery the same as in the footwell? it doesn't look that bulky where you have it.

Yes, that's the standard 072 battery. I used the footwell battery box though it did need a little titivating. There is quite a lot of space behind the piece of felt covered GRP above the tank. I also cut the carpet off the top of the tank as it has a thick foam backing, I added a rubber pad between tank and battery box to add a little protection.