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Battery Lesson Learned

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T

Tinster

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Here's an intersting lesson I learned the hard way.
The battery disconnects on TR6 are apparently not needed
and might, in fact, bring a heap of bad news down upon
your head. Like engine fires or blown up ignitions or blown
up coils.

I know zero about automotive or house electricity. I have
proved this fact time and again. I installed the battery
disconnects because they were in all the TR6 parts catalogs
and installed on just about every photo of a Triumph engine
I have ever seen.

The disconnect gizzmo can easily touch the battery
horizontal, steel strap and make a connection. Then the
electricty seems to go all over the place and makes fires
or blows things up.

Here is what mine looked liked this morning before I put
it back to normal. A time bomb waiting to blow up.

BadBattery.jpg
[/img]
 
I can say I had a few sparks fly when I first installed the battery hold down. The PO had nothing to keep the battery in place but he only drove the car around the block and never over 20 mph. I am now quite careful when working on it.
 
I agree that battery disconnects are not necessary, but the battery posts look to be too close to the hold-down even with regular connectors. Can't you find a battery that has the posts on the aft side of the battery?
 
Okay, the negative side, the braided cable, would not cause any problem. That is the ground side. The positive side, the red cable, HOWEVER could be a rather large problem(hate to see Amos go up in a cloud of smoke). At the very least remove the positive cable disconnect. Make sure the cable and terminal is routed as far away from the bracket as possible. If you can acquire a battery terminal cover, do so. Dunno if they are available separately anymore. Believe that the larger parts houses can get them. Also take the hold down bracket off and plasti-dip it. A can of plasti dip at most hardware store, to dip plier handles in to coat the metal, provide some measure of insulation.
Plus you might be able to find the plasti dip in a special color to match your mood.
 
Looks to me like the angle iron could be narrower.The original hold down bar is confiqured differently.
See moss cat.part #'s 031-769 for early6 or 804-620 for late 6.
 
Yeah, I was going to say that that looks like some sort of home made battery tie down. I think Dale said that the PO didn't have the battery tied down originally. The OEM style battery bar is made to not stick out towards the terminals too much.
 
Looks like the right hold-down piece... for a TR3 or TR4.

If you think you need a disconnect then you only use it on the ground post -- that is enough to break the circuit. No advantage to having one on each post.

Personally I just leave it hooked up but leave the ground post loose enough that I can just pull it off when working on the car (wrenches around the air cleaner have a way of turning into arc welders if you're not paying attention).

Definitely the next time you buy a battery get the reverse of what you have and the post will be to the rear. Looks neater that way too I think.
 
When we got the car, the horizontal bar and two
hold down threaded rods were rusting hulks
beneath a thin layer of DPO Pedro's universal black paint.

I stripped all three to bare metal, cleaned up the
rust and powder coated them. (what else?)

This a brand new battery one year old less than 6 hours use.



d
 
Dale
That is the correct hold down for your car. Same as the one on my '71. You could run your ground cable under the hold down so it's vertical when you mount it to the ground disconnect and eliminate the positive disconnect as Geo Hahn suggests. Ron gave a good suggestion of the plasti-dip if you can find it.

Joe
 
Now THIS is a battery cable cover. Since I have three leads off my positive on my gel battery, I triple insulated the cable against frays as well as used a connector cover. The cover is available at any automotive store. The large shrink tubing I get from NAPA. Comes with a glue liner and shrinks down to make a flexible but impervious coating for the cable. See that I leave my negative off. Also see my dowel rod bonnet prop, as I leave my bonnet open at all times when parked in the garage, this takes the strain off the stock metal rod and prevents dreaded "bonnet warp".

cover.jpg
 
That can't possibly be four (4) little gray marks on the front edge of the battery hold down, can it????

No way, Jose....must be a bad exposure of the photo.

Whew....had me worried there!
 
Yeah, guess it's time to respray!!! Dang, I was hoping you wouldn't have noticed.
 
Those shut-offs are un-needed and usually of a very poor quality and I would never use one...my personal opinion.
 
Thanks for the advice. The only negative (pun intened)
is the negative terminal green disconnect is such a kitch
to remove compared to the one I installed on the positive
terminal. The positive cutoff cannot be loaded from the
vertical position like the green one. But the positive
disconnect is ever so easy to remove. two pieces that
come apart.

thanks all.

d
 
Dale, get one of these, then you can connect two batteries, the one in the front and the spare in the trunk. Gives you the option of battery one, or the second, or both.


197260326.jpg
 
Yeah!! A Mag switch! Just don't get one marked "Left~Right~Both".
Then you'd have to change your battery placement. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
Jeff
 
Ray-

I have a heavy duty, marine verion of that switch installed
on my boat. Works just great


My spare battery in the TR trunk is only a 12V by 18 amps-
hardly worth connecting.

d
 
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