I’m hoping to have the MG on the road within a few weeks and one of the last money items I needed to buy was a new battery. The past 6 months I’ve been using a large marine battery that sits on the rear seat shelf, not a perfect scenario and even worse, making it hard to close the car to the elements and critters. Take a look at this.
Having measured the small battery compartment I was convinced that the recommended size 26R battery wouldn’t fit but the friendly folks at my local Canadian Tire said I could return the battery if needed. The battery fits beautifully with about 1mm to spare on each side and enough room on top to attach cables. Perfect, right?
Now here’s the stupid admission I’ll make. I have my fuel pump located within the right side battery compartment so the new battery needs to be on the left. Changing the ground over to the left side battery compartment was easy but I needed to attach an extra length of cable to the starter solenoid cable. Easy enough to do but without thinking I ran the cable between the boxes and into the left compartment. A quick few runs up and down the driveway and… lots of smoke and burning shit. The solenoid cable was touching the driveshaft and after wearing through created a nice hot spot. Take a look at the connectors. At least I still own an MG, that was close.
Was that ever stupid! Back to the drawing board we go. Here’s the improved installation with the solenoid cable running through some garden hose to prevent chafing and high enough to avoid the driveshaft. This is a temporary solution, I’ll make some changes when I can work from under the car. And yes, it is a positive ground.
