Charging a 4.2V8 Cerbera with battery in place

[The Dogster]

Hi All,

Feel a little silly asking this BUT....how can I charge the battery "in place" on my Cerb 4.2

I suppose I am asking how I access the negative pole easily

Thanks in advance

[WIL35]

If the negative lead has a crocodile clip on it, you can attach it to the aircon unit at the front of the engine, the block is earthed to the chassis. That's where I attached my Accumate until I fitted ring connectors so it could be left attached to the battery terminal fixings.

[The Dogster]

Thanks - appreciate it

[Imran999]

I have a CTEK trickle charger that comes with a plug in the 12V line. I have attached a couple of spade connectors and plugged them into the fusebox (in the boot).

[Penelope Stopit]

Imran999 said:

I have a CTEK trickle charger that comes with a plug in the 12V line. I have attached a couple of spade connectors and plugged them into the fusebox (in the boot).

Clever, I like clever

[tejr]

Imran999 said:

I have a CTEK trickle charger that comes with a plug in the 12V line. I have attached a couple of spade connectors and plugged them into the fusebox (in the boot).

Any pics? Where did you plug the spades into? Are any of the empty relay sockets "live"?

The terminals I used in my 4.2 are not live in my 4.5 and haven't had a chance to look further.. My other point of call was the dip dip relay.

[Imran999]

The charger has a male plug attached, but it was also supplied with a female plug for wiring into the car.

I attached the negative end of the female plug to the main earth in the boot (fuel tank upper right support/securing point), and the positive end into the fuse box, with a spade connector. I used one of the un-used relay slots for this purpose and found the 12V pin with a multimeter.

Pretty simple stuff - got the idea from a chap on here who had wired both pos and neg into an old relay (with innards mostly removed) which then acted as a handy plug-in to the fuse board.

[Granturadriver]

I charge my T-car via the cigarettes lighter with a ctek V12 connector.

https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/connect-cig-...

[Imran999]

Granturadriver said:

I charge my T-car via the cigarettes lighter with a ctek V12 connector.

https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/connect-cig-...

A friend just got one of these connectors for his CTEK charger - extremely handy!

[tejr]

Imran999 said:

The charger has a male plug attached, but it was also supplied with a female plug for wiring into the car.

I attached the negative end of the female plug to the main earth in the boot (fuel tank upper right support/securing point), and the positive end into the fuse box, with a spade connector. I used one of the un-used relay slots for this purpose and found the 12V pin with a multimeter.

Pretty simple stuff - got the idea from a chap on here who had wired both pos and neg into an old relay (with innards mostly removed) which then acted as a handy plug-in to the fuse board.

Yes, I think I read something about someone wiring their charger into a relay slot too, but that post sounded like it was an active relay and I've not yet had a chance to dig around (too busy with other little jobs in the car!).

Will have a fumble around tomorrow. Nice one.

I already have the ctek "comfort" indicator plug (with the indicator LEDs) so it makes sense to wire that in nicely in the boot somewhere..

[tejr]

Fyi, relay Inputs 48 and 50 in the boot fuse box seem to provide a decent live and earth with the engine off.. Gonna hard wire the ctek tomorrow

[Penelope Stopit]

Using a relay negative could cause problems

OK with a good positive at a relay terminal 30 input that will carry a trickle charge current

The thing is with the negatives there could be low current carrying conductors in the circuit that aren't up to the job

[tejr]

Good point. I'll stick to the 'main' earthing point in the boot.

[Byker28i]

I have a trickle charger that plugs into the 12v cigarette socket

[Penelope Stopit]

tejr said:

Good point. I'll stick to the 'main' earthing point in the boot.

Glad you visited back, better be safe than.........

Then again this is a TVR, safety Mmmmmm, no risk no fun