Starter battery bodge .... with photos

[RichardS]

Are they perhaps the over-pressure valves? I'd leave them alone.

Incidentally, those EM1100 batteries are hugely expensive. Do you need 925A CCA? You could have got the Exide EP800 AGM with 850A CCA for about half as much.

But I wanted the screw terminal version with +ve on the left and it looked like the EM1100 were exactly right ..... until Exide changed the 8mm -ve to 10mm. Unfortunately, not even Exide seemed to know about the change in size.

At one stage I was thinking of buying the original 100Ah Lifelines as I knew the terminals would be an exact match .... but the Exide's were half as much as the Lifelines so I'm happy.

Richard

 

[reeac]

I imagine the 8mm terminal consists of an 8mm set screw threaded into a tapped hole in the copper bar.

My solution to the same problem would probably have been a clamp to fit the round post with an 8mm stud terminal because I don't have the copper bar

or possibly to have bought a battery with just round posts, if possible, and used a pair of clamps with stud terminals The positive one with a 10mm stud and the negative with an 8mm stud

I wanted some copper strip recently in order to make a garden sculpture. Bought 3 x 3m. lengths of 15 mm copper pipe and found that this could , by a sequence of partially flatten (in a vice), anneal at around 450 C, fully flatten, anneal again I could create the desired strip in a suitably soft condition. Copper pipe is very readily available and I was fortunate to find a local forge cum foundry to do the annealing as I lacked the necessary " fire power".

 

[simonfraser]

is copper hard enough to tap / screw into and then to tighten the nut for a solid connection ?

 

[RichardS]

is copper hard enough to tap / screw into and then to tighten the nut for a solid connection ?

I won't know until I actually try it on the boat, but it seems solid enough. However, I can fit a spanner under the copper strip so can always tighten it in the conventional way.

Richard

 

[rotrax]

It does not seem a bodge to me-and over the last 55 years I have encountered some real horrors-and in extrimis, carried out one or two as well!

I had to deal with a similar terminal discrepancy. I coped in a similar way.

As long as the new connection is reliable and safe, all will be well.

I saw a guy changing a battery on a Derby built post war Bentley when I was an apprentice. The new, fully charged battery was the type with external cell connections.

A spanner fell from his pocket as he leaned down to place the battery and shorted the external connections.

He burned his fingers badly when he grabbed the shorted spanner which became red hot really fast.

Then the whole top of the battery lifted off, showering acid over the Bentley, mechanic and me.

We laid him on his back and washed his eyes out with the forecourt watering can for topping up radiators.

We both required new clothes.

The firm bought mine, he, as the instigator, had to get his own.

A particularly nasty incident.

With high discharge electrical gear, when it goes wrong, it goes wrong really fast!

You have achieved, IMHO, a neat solution.

 

[VicS]

is copper hard enough to tap / screw into and then to tighten the nut for a solid connection ?

I won't know until I actually try it on the boat, but it seems solid enough. However, I can fit a spanner under the copper strip so can always tighten it in the conventional way.

Richard

I wondered if copper is bit too soft ........ maybe brass would be better ? Anyhow I guess it's something that won't have to be disconnected and reconnected frequently, maybe not until the battery is changed again in ten years time.

Counter-holding the 8mm screw is the obvious thing to do ...