After an epic gardening session yesterday, I was also able to get a little bit done outside before the sun went down...
Battery:
I test fitted my new battery, but the new retaining bracket did not want to line up / work properly.
( Admittedly, the battery sits much lower than standard in my home made battery box. )
Thankfully I found something suitable in the box of bits that came with my donor car.
Although I still had the issue with the length of the bolts.
So out came the angle grinder to trim both the width of the bracket & length of the bolts.
Then I added the foam strip that came with the new bracket.
So now it all looks a lot better.
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Battery Cut Off Switch:
I had also bought two new battery leads:
- One for the battery terminal to the cut off switch.
- The other from the cut off switch to the bulkhead earth.
It was only when I came to fit them that I noticed another school boy error.
I'd measured the "ring" end of the original battery cable (bottom right) and made sure the new ones matched.
However, what I
should have done is measure the size of the cut off switch bolts, as they are bigger.
My temporary fix was to open up the "ring" like so.
The next step was to drill two holes in the bulkhead so the leads could be connected to the switch.
Unfortunately, "
Amateur Night" continued as I managed to make a hash of this simple task too.
I've actually ended up with three holes to avoid a severe bend in one of the leads.
The only good news is that I have had plenty of practise welding up holes in this bulkhead.
So this is the route the battery cable will take going into the bulkhead.
( Some new rubber grommets for the holes have been ordered. )
Then the return cable will come back out here and connect to the original Spitfire earthing point.
( Other cables will also be attached to this point. )
At some point I will a few holes in the bulkhead for some pop rivets to hold some zip tie mounts.
Then I can use the zip ties to keep the two cables apart and tuck them neatly out of the way.
But that's all for this update, so until next time, take care, Paul.
