Thread: Meet my 90, and share the adventure.

Today's little project was installing an earth bus in the battery box.
One of the issues is all the lug connections everywhere. The starting battery negative terminal is probably the most cramped, with 3 lugs stacked on the 1 post. Not bad, but not ideal either.
The little job today involved bolting a Blue sea systems bus bar to the inside front of the battery box. You can see it on the top left of the pic below:



This bus bar was a spare bus bar from the ex box project that had been clogging up the parts cupboard at home. So this was put to use in the battery box. The unfortunate thing about these 'never ending' projects is that I often hang onto too many things after they are removed, or don't plan properly and over-purchase parts or end up changing my mind and not using them entirely. My 100+ trips to bunnings, and a case full of nuts and bolts are testament to this phenomenon.

The bus bar arrangement will also help me trouble shoot a bit of a bug I have with the existing setup- for some reason, when disconnecting the starting battery from the main power feed (to the starter motor and fuse block), the aux battery is somehow powering the dome light... so there is power leaking between the 2 battery systems somehow... I ideally want the systems to be isolated from each other, with only the ACR (charging relay) being between the batteries. Any ideas on troubleshooting this would be welcomed!
On a plus side, having the earths laid out on a bus will mean that I can disconnect one lug connector without having to remove the whole stack of earths. Plus it will look neater, and pull more babes.

Some might ask why I am back to old tricks messing about in the battery box...
I'm making some changes in this area to accommodate a new electrical addition in the engine compartment. It's still in planning, but I will be installing a headlight wiring relay kit, plus an additional (small, max 4 circuit) fuse block in the engine bay for incidental additions in the future. One of the goals with the electrical mods was to make easy access to points of power and earth for future additions. I've got this squared away in the ex box, in the rear speaker panel, but the engine bay is the only place that I have not yet molested with additional wiring . I am looking forward to tidying up some of the previous spot light and LED light bar install work that was done before my purchase of the vehicle. The tell-tale bundles of wires zip tied and stuffed into odd places are still there, as are the scotch locks on the headlight circuit to power the in-cab switchgear.
Wish me luck... there is not much spare space in the puma engine bay...

...and if you're a nerd like me, then here is the battery box schematic I drew up using SchemeIt, which is a free online circuit diagram tool.


Most of the components are there. Hopefully I haven't omitted anything.

When I get around to it, I might draw one up for the Ex Box layout.
It's deceptively simple when you look at it on paper.

Like your work Mitch.

This is an area I'm desperately trying to put off tackling. SchemeIt may be my next way of procrastinating.

Cheers,
Jon

Cheers Jon, glad to hear you are enjoying the thread. Your defender is coming along very nicely too, I've been following with interest.

Not a big update, but got some parts in the post to play with. Cue puma engine bay tetris.





I've got a carling switch panel for the dash, a midi fuse holder and a split bus bar.
This will be for the power feed to the engine bay, in prep for the headlight wiring upgrade kit.


Last Saturday I spent a few minutes installing Nugget's seat box things. I'm not sure if it was sheer luck or what, but the screws were within millimeters of the fuse panel I have within the battery box, and all cabling I have in there. I'll count that as a win. If only I was always so lucky.

So it went from this:


To this:


The mud cleaning fairy hasn't visited in a while... so disregard the mess

I was considering drilling and installing riv-nuts for these corner protectors, but as it stands, the clearances are SUPER TIGHT between the fasteners and the door card when closed... so I might not risk it. Admittedly on one side the protector stands off the panel by about 3mm due to a nut I installed underneath. Furthermore, due to the height of the riv-nut and the way they meet at 90 degrees inside the battery box, I might also run into clearance issues if they don't compress down enough or if the fasteners I use are too long.

If I get some time this weekend I might do some wiring, or at least run the power feed to the front. Failing that, I'll have to wait until after the weekend of the 30th, as I'll be down newcastle way for a family gig and some 4-wheeling at the Watagan state forest.

Love your work Mitch.

Did you know that Narva also make Carling switch holders as single units which dovetail together, allowing one or multiple switches to be ganged together. Tis how I mounted my compressor and diff lock switches.

Originally Posted by numpty

Love your work Mitch.

Did you know that Narva also make Carling switch holders as single units which dovetail together, allowing one or multiple switches to be ganged together. Tis how I mounted my compressor and diff lock switches.

Did you know you can buy them from the Chinese manufacturer for $1.00 each

I did notice the delicacies being bartered from Fling-Woo's plastic foundry...
but since I'm drilling a sizable hole in a very large piece of plastic that is is front of me whenever I'm in the Land Rover, I spent the extra 20 bucks to get something that I KNOW will be good quality. I hate chintzy chinese plastic, moreso if I have to look at it and be reminded of my mistake buying it... or having to buy twice because the first wasn't up to par.

Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

I did notice the delicacies being bartered from Fling-Woo's plastic foundry...

but since I'm drilling a sizable hole in a very large piece of plastic that is is front of me whenever I'm in the Land Rover, I spent the extra 20 bucks to get something that I KNOW will be good quality. I hate chintzy chinese plastic, moreso if I have to look at it and be reminded of my mistake buying it... or having to buy twice because the first wasn't up to par.

Good news. Same factory for Narva (which is the bottom end of domestic quality IMO - never fit a Narva bulb!)

Quality is A1 surprisingly. Better fit and finish than most items...