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Battery to use?

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L

LanceLyon

Jedi Hopeful
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I'm getting ready to fire up my barn project after sitting for 25 years. It is in no way ready for anything except the brief satisfaction of getting it running before I begin in earnest the frame-off restoration.
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Does Sears offer a battery that fits a BJ7? If not using an "original" style battery, what does everyone use?
 
I put a deep cycle marine battery in my BJ7 because it was not a daily driver. The posts have theaded studs that go thru the helmet type cable fittings and do a wonderful job of holding the cables in place. Not having to drill holes in the top of the battery electrodes is also a plus.

SB
 
SB,
I know that you are trying to keep the car as original as possible, & commend you for it.

In my opinion, the helmet type connectors are NOT one of the Lucas better ideas. The fully enclosed connection seems a perfect place to breed corrosion & bad connections & it can't be detected by simple inspection. Also due to the short taper of the fit it is easy for the helmet to become stretched, Then there will never be a good connection due to contact on the top of the posts only.

This is one area where I choose to sacrifice originality for reliability & use the "better" standard clamp connections. As you would guess from my tone, I also don't use the battery disconnect switch for the same reason.
D
 
Dave;

I personally think Lucas never had a good electrical idea. My favorite is linen wrapped and varnished wiring in my Bentley S1, now there was a brilliant idea.

Someone said in their signature...loosely paraphrased; If Lucas designed and built weaponry, wars would never start. Gods’ honest truth as far as I've experienced.
 
I'm not an electrical engineer but I did read somewhere that installing a larger capacity battery than original will over tax the generator and the regulator. IMHO Unless you've installed an alternator, I would stick with the correct size battery.
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Anyway, if you're just going to get the car running, why not use a spare battery? I wouldn't purchase a new battery until the car is near completion.
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[ 02-05-2004: Message edited by: Johnny ]</p>
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Johnny:
I'm not an electrical engineer but I did read somewhere that installing a larger capacity battery than original will over tax the generator and the regulator. IMHO Unless you've installed an alternator, I would stick with the correct size battery.
smile.gif

]<hr></blockquote>
Actually, with the Lucas RB type control box, Which is used on many British cars of the era, the current is limited to a safe value no matter what the battery size. A larger battery would just take longer to be fully charged. In the following reference, note the "series coil Fig 5-1"
https://home.tiscali.be/jozef.neefs/NL/tecnics/RB106.htm
D
 
Johnny,

I did begin the process by removing the battery from my other car to work on the Healey, but I got tired of re-setting all of my radio stations everytime I did!

I ended up taking ThomP's recommendation and purchased a type 27 Die-Hard to get me through the early stages of restoration while I drive my wreck for fun. It sounds as though I will end up with an Optima battery when I am finally done with the project, perhaps in a couple of years!

Thanks for everyone's input and help. Where would I be without the rest of you?
 
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