Mopar Muscle Association UK

No it's not the title of a new short story.

I really just wanted to find out what other people do regarding car's that are laid up to stop their battery's going flat.

I currently use a basic trickle charger with no elaborate display or intelligent cut off with LCD display etc. My battery is also an original non sealed type yellow cap Mopar battery. Is there anything better (apart from driving it) that people recommend?

Also for you guys with 318's/340's/360's where does your battery's negative lead earth to on the engine. My lead currently earths via the front top bolt on the drivers side of the inlet manifold which incidently goes through a water way into the head. Do others earth directly into the front of the head?

Cheers

Gav, same earth point as yours - 1974 Dart Sport. I run my car in winter, nice quiet roads down here at this time of year!

Mione had that earth point originally. You must make sure the engine is well earthed to the chassis as well. (Think about it, it's on rubbers front and back, some cars are just earhted through the throttle cable or shifter linkage hence some burnt out shifter cables! )

I take my battery out and keep it in a nice dry (moderately warm) place. So far I have never needed to charge it, but it is a fairly new unit, AC Delco.

I have a earth strap from the back of the power steering pump bolt to the chassis and the battery and another strap from the chassis to the battery. It could do with some new cabling though, it's not very nice.

I use a normal lead acid battery and do not have a fancy intelligent trickle charger.

I just stick the charger on it every couple of weeks to keep it topped up with charge. If you let it go for a long time without a top-up charge you will shorten it's life. Also try not to let the battery get too cold.

Which reminds me. It has been a couple of weeks since i did mine so I had better go and pratice what I preach!

On the earthing question the ground side of the battery can be connected in two ways:
1) Directly to the engine and then a separate lead from the engine to the frame.
2) Directly to the vehicle frame and then from the frame to the engine.

Both can be accomplished using as few as three connections. If possible, the first method is preferred over the second.

On my car I have a strap from the bulkhead to one intake bolt, a wire that jumps across the drivers engine mount to earth to the K-frame, and a direct connection from the battery to the starter and frame.
Obviously on a restoration you just have to make the best of the way the factory did it.

Surface preparation for grounding is important. Don't depend on the screw threads to do all the work. Make sure there is bare metal under the connectors and, if possible, use a star washer which will "bite" into the metal and make a good connection. A bit of vasaline goes a long way to keeping the connections good.

A quick test on engine ground can be made with a voltmeter. You will need a meter set to a scale that will read D.C. volts from 0 up to 2 or 3 volts.

Remove the coil H.T. lead (to prevent engine starting). Put the negative probe of the meter onto the battery negative and the positive probe onto a good solid ground on the starter motor case. Have a friend crank the engine and check the reading on the meter.

If there is more than 3/4 volt drop from the starter case to the negative battery terminal while cranking you should inspect the battery cables, clean up all connections and make sure the bolts holding the starter motor are tight. If you still have over 3/4 volt drop then you can try heavier cables on the battery.

Hope this helps.

Cheers guys.

Just wanted to check to make sure I wasn't doing it wrong really, you never know.

By the way does the fact that the existing negative battery lead earthing bolt goes through a water way matter i.e. dumping a small amount of charge into the cooling system?

No. It isn't putting anything into the water. Just watch the bolt does not get rusty and that you have a good bare metal connection. The voltage drop test i described is the best way to tell if you have a engine-to-earth problem.

1) Directly to the engine and then a separate lead from the engine to the frame.

Not very practical when me batteries are in the boot!

Kev wrote:

1) Directly to the engine and then a separate lead from the engine to the frame.

Not very practical when me batteries are in the boot!

Doh! I forgot I changed that when I moved my battery to the boot! That is what comes from re-posting old bits I wrote years ago. In fact I must have originally wrote the above about 10 years or more ago?

What you thought I just wrote that off the top of my head?

Yeah now the battery is in the boot I have a positive cable running directly to the starter and then take a cable from there to the power distrubution terminal block.

The -ve of the battery now goes to the wheelarch in the boot. The rest is as described.