Which side is positive on a T1994 TVR Chimeara battery

[robmarrs]

My 1994 Chim battery has died in my parents garage, Dad decided to turn the CTEK battery charger off in his wisdom a month ago , car is now dead to the world and the battery won't take a charge, it is 9 years old.

My problem is this, the car is an 80 mile round trip away and I need to find which way round the terminals are on a 1994 chim, don't want to end up making 2-3 trips just to sort the battery out. I fitted it with an Optima AGM battery years ago but there are two types of terminal layout.

Is the + on the left or right looking at it from the passenger seat.

Cheers

Edited by robmarrs on Sunday 22 September 09:37

[Penelope Stopit]

Positive is on the left nearest to you

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/072/

[ianwayne]

You can get away with an 075 but connecting it up becomes more awkward with the terminals on the reverse side.

There are several threads about alternatives (hard to find since the 'search' function on here is so poor ). Found this using google:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=13...

Many owners dispense with the battery box altogether giving them more choices.

072 is the direct replacement size but if the cables are long enough (and they usually are), you have many options.

[Paulprior]

Do you mean that the battery won’t hold a charge or that it won’t charge up?, most modern trickle chargers will not recognise a flat battery and therefore will not try to charge it, if you have an old style charger then this would start the process and could then be replaced with the trickle charger, or connect another decent battery to the charger at the same time so that the charger sees a battery

[QBee]

Honest answer with a nine year old battery is replace it - if you can get it going this time you soon won't, and it will piss you off frequently.
General comment when searching for bad running and non-starting issues, and batteries that seem to go flatter than you expect - It's worth fitting a new battery BEFORE you replace the entire ignition system.
Some years ago I had to replace mine and took my car to the local battery place. Specified an Exide 072, like you do, but when the guy came to fit it, it needed one with the terminals the other way round, which was an 073.

[ou sont les biscuits]

QBee said:

Some years ago I had to replace mine and took my car to the local battery place. Specified an Exide 072, like you do, but when the guy came to fit it, it needed one with the terminals the other way round, which was an 073.

Given that the OP might have a 'wrong 'un' too, if it was me I'd ask Dad to go into the garage and take a photo of what's there. It's just a piece of carpet (and maybe a bit of felt) to pull out.

[robmarrs]

ou sont les biscuits said:

Given that the OP might have a 'wrong 'un' too, if it was me I'd ask Dad to go into the garage and take a photo of what's there. It's just a piece of carpet (and maybe a bit of felt) to pull out.

Trouble is Dad is 87 and not up to rummaging around in the footwell not least that side of the car is only 1 foot away from a wall, so not an option even for me... would have to push it out the garage first.

[robmarrs]

Paulprior said:

Do you mean that the battery won’t hold a charge or that it won’t charge up?, most modern trickle chargers will not recognise a flat battery and therefore will not try to charge it, if you have an old style charger then this would start the process and could then be replaced with the trickle charger, or connect another decent battery to the charger at the same time so that the charger sees a battery

As well as the CTek 3600 that is fitted to the car I also have got a proper CTek MSX25 professional charger that can resurrect "dead" batteries as it has a programme for it, but not worked on this one I am afraid as Dad had it running over Friday & Saturday connected to my anderson jump lead terminal.

Edited by robmarrs on Sunday 22 September 19:28

[robmarrs]

QBee said:

Specified an Exide 072, like you do, but when the guy came to fit it, it needed one with the terminals the other way round, which was an 073.

This is exactly my worry! I can't remember which way round it all is, the car is turboed and the megasquirt sits on top of the the battery box as well.

I have had to replace the battery twice before, I have the invoices but they don't specify enough on them to determine which version I bought and therfore what terminal configuration it is. Still in its original box and I haven't messed with the wiring.

I can see a trip coming TBH.

[QBee]

Batteries are a similar price regardless of where you buy them, so perhaps get over there, find out what it is and which way around, then go buy one locally to dad? Should make it a one journey event.

[Skyedriver]

The + will probably have a red lead to it, the - maybe yellow.?

[ChimpOnGas]

robmarrs said:

This is exactly my worry! I can't remember which way round it all is, the car is turboed and the megasquirt sits on top of the the battery box as well.

I have had to replace the battery twice before, I have the invoices but they don't specify enough on them to determine which version I bought and therfore what terminal configuration it is. Still in its original box and I haven't messed with the wiring.

I can see a trip coming TBH.

Please do not condemn your Optima AGM battery as it's highly likely it can be recovered, the reason its not accepting charge is your CTEK battery charger is simply not seeing the battery!

Does your CTEK charger have a dedicated AGM mode?

Your charger needs to see a tiny current to bring it to life and start the charging process, this is a classic problem when working with fully discharged AGM batteries like your Optima, the internal resistance of an AGM battery is so low the charger just fails to kick when its fully discharged.

AGM batteries are amazing, I've seen them sat for over six months in a fully discharged state only to be fully recovered and go onto give years of further service. The secret is to use a charger that has an AGM mode, this is super critical as charging an AGM battery demands a very different charging algorithm.

If your CTEK doesn't have an AGM mode its not AMG compatible, and even if has this feature I recommend hooking the battery up to a second charged or partially charged battery which will kick the CTEK in and 12 hours later you'll have yourself a fully charged Optima that's good for many more years service.

If it is genuinely unrecoverable and I really really doubt it is, dont wort too much about terminal orientation, battery terminals are typically only 30mm off the battery centre line which is nothing so just turn the battery around and the cables will fit no problem at all. But as I say, all you really need is a second battery with a bit of charge in it to trigger your charger and a set of jump leads.

Hook your Optima battery up to your everyday car like your doing a jump start but dont crank the TVR, now turn your CTEK charger on, once you see it starting to apply a charge you can disconnect your jump leads, you're now just 12 hours away from a fully charged expensive Optima AGM battery you very nearly threw away.

See, no new battery needed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=195&am...