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poorly fitted battery clamp... sparks!!

hi, thanks to all who gave me advice last week on buying a 1995 defender

  1. i got it home in one piece on the ferry and i'm really delighted with it. it's in basically good shape (300 TDi engine feels great, only 35k miles), and the chassis and bulkead are rust free, although there are small signs of rot at the bottom of the doors, which i have read is fairly common. not the end of the world.

i noticed the previous owner didn't have the battery very well secured. it has a small metal which sits along the upper corner of the battery, and is held in place by 2 metal pegs that latch under the floor on each side of the battery compartment. 2 nuts at the end of each peg go through the metal bar and hold it tight over the battery. i noticed as i was tightening these nuts that sparks appeared where the pegs latch on to the floor of the compartment. i was obviously alarmed because i only have limited electrical experience and you hear awful stories of guys in trucks who hit power lines etc.. i guess this is only 12 volts though. anyway i had the manual in the car and i read that no metal should ever touch the terminals on the battery. one of the plastic/rubber terminal covers was missing, and the previous owner had clamped the bar right under the exposed negative terminal, so it was touching metal, and connected to the floor through the bar and the peg. i assume this is the cause of the sparks? as a temporary measure i removed the clamp bar altogether and made sure no metal is touching the terminals. i got out of the car and didn't get a shock anyway!

i looked around the internet and saw a picture of a defender battery that had the bar clamped across the middle of the battery in between the two terminals. this guy had his battery perpendicular to the car, but mine is oriented inline with the length of the car. should i swap it around to be perpendicular? i think the clamp could fit safely between the terminals then.

thanks tim

Reply to
Tim_Mac
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Tim_Mac uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Is it possibly to grind the clamp to give you some extra clearance around the area of the terminals?

Come the worest Halfords do or did an off the self clamp similar to yours incase you go to far on the grind.

Are the leads long enough to rotate the battery 180 degrees thus putting the terminals well away from the clamp IYSWIM.

Lee

Reply to
Lee_D

I had a look at the hymn sheet ( Defender parts manual 110 1987 onwards page 681-2) what is shown is two J bolts which hook into the battery carrier plate and pass through the ends of a piece of angle ( battery clamp) which runs along the long side of the battery on each side they are tensioned by a washer, locking nut and a wing nut. If the battery terminals are correctly fitted they should not foul the clamp. possibly: non-standard battery- insufficient gap between edge and posts, the battery terminal clamp is turned on the post? is the clamp running snug along edge of the battery? Derek

Reply to
Derek

hi lee thanks for the reply. i don't have any good grinding / cutting equipment, just a jigsaw and drill... but, there was enough length in the leads for me to turn it around 180 degrees. it fits in great and the pegs align very well now crossing the middle of the battery instead of sitting under the leads next to the terminals. i now have a safely mounted spark-free battery.. one item off the list! thanks again. tim

Reply to
Tim_Mac

hi Derek, thanks for the reply. i just spend 100 euros on the workshop manual and now i find out there's even more literature. i guess you can't fault landrover on documentation.

the pieces you describe are all there in the compartment, and the battery has a landrover sticker on it. the non-covered terminal is slightly bent around but only 20 degrees or so off straight. in my case, if the angle was sitting snug along the side of the battery parallel with the terminals, it would cause a metal contact. there is about 3mm of exposed wire at the end of the lead which probably doesn't help. i have it working now though and it seems to make better use of the space in the compartment. so i'll leave it as is. thanks again for your post. tim p.s. does 'foul' mean causing a short circuit? i have yet to learn the mechanic's lingo :)

Reply to
Tim_Mac

glad its sorted fouling usually just means something coming into contact with summat it shouldn't e.g. pipes and wires resting on parts that move or may cause damage - look how many wires are strung about under the bonnet the potential for damage is huge if they were not secured away from harm. We had a new fleet of trucks delivered from MAN a while back and every one had a brake airline fouling the chassis result after a few 1000km the lines had worn through Derek

Reply to
Derek

In message , Tim_Mac writes

If you are getting sparks when the clamp touches the negative terminal that would suggest not much of an earth [none] between battery and chassis, which needs attention. I'm surprised anything works at all. Are you sure it was the *negative* terminal that the clamp was touching?

Reply to
hugh

...and Tim_Mac spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...

With 12v, you won't get a shock whatever you do, but with the amps available to start the engine shorting straight to earth, you could have a very cosy fire in no time at all.

If there is ANY risk at all of either of the battery terminals touching any part of the chassis or bodywork (think rough ground, everything bouncing about), then make a permanent solution, as others have suggested. At the very least, lay some insulating material over the terminals so that they cannot touch anything but the battery cables. For our 4x4 club scrutineers, a large blob of silicone sealant completely covering the terminals is considered adequate.

Reply to
Richard Brookman

hi hugh, thanks for your post. there was some suspect wiring with the rear lights and i think some of the cables were mixed up, this may explain the lack of earthing in the circuit. i have disconnected the incorrectly wired lights until i can figure it out.

the battery is safely mounted now but i'll try the silicon trick on the exposed terminal as richard suggested, if i can't get a proper rubber cap for it.

cheers tim

Reply to
Tim_Mac

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