Battery Terminal help

[grenade44]

Hi, this is my first car project and haven't done anything like this before.

My Morris minor 1000 has been sat in a garage for 27 years. I bought a new battery for it and found the new battery doesn't have the screw hole in it. I'm looking to change the terminal so its not a screw one. I was looking at this http://ebay.us/mEiCG7 is this correct? And how hard are they to change? I'm also not sure which way the battery should go in? I was told the battery was removed when the car when into the garage and went I opened the bonnet, I found a battery in there. Was this battery fitted correctly? Ive uploaded a picture of the engine with the battery I found in the car. Which side is negative and positive?

I hope someone can help me out, I cant wait to get this moggy back on the road.[frame][/frame]

[bmcecosse]

The body of the battery adjacent to each terminal will be marked +Ve or -Ve. The +Ve terminal is also slightly larger.

[grenade44]

Which way round should the battery be in the car?

[Trickydicky]

Depends on how the car is wired, mine for instance is "positive earth" ( the positive terminal of the battery is connected to the chassis) and the battery has the + terminal on the right as you look from the front of the car.
The only way I can think of to check which way your car was/is/should be wired is to measure the terminals already attached to the car. So if the larger terminal is on the right, then you can be nearly sure the car is positive earth.
If you connect the battery up the wrong way then the ignition light will stay on as the dynamo will not be charging.
Zooming in on your picture, as the red cable on the battery is connected to the chassis the the car is positive earth and the + terminal of the battery should be to the right.

Hope this helps.

[simmitc]

In the ideal world, the terminals should be to the rear, nearest the windscreen. This is so that the metal retaining strap at the front cannot accidentally short across the terminals. The battery is held slightly away from the body by two rubber bungs at the back of the battery "box".

The battery type is 038 such as this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/15095958 ... 108&ff19=0

If you have a dynamo fitted then you can have either +ve or -ve earth. As designed, the car was +ve earth, but can be converted (see other threads on this subject). If stored for so long, it is unlikely that you will have a modern alternator fitted, but these are always -ve earth.

Sometimes people change the earth and then turn the battery round so that the earth strap will reach the terminal. It's much better to move the earth strap and, if necessary, fit a longer main lead to the solenoid.

[brett]

As stated the positive terminal is a bit bigger than the negative, i've just had all this and if the + on your battery is to the right as you look at the battery from the front of the car and the lead coming off it just goes to the battery tray, then you have positive earth, with the terminals to the back.
Halfords sell both sizes of terminals and they are good quality and a nice fit, i've bought one and i'm happy with it.

[whyperion]

It is fairly easy to drill a suitable hole in the terminal post
The cable terminals though can be a bit more loose than clamp type though, but then its less likely to short terminals with a spanner when undoing them.

Currently mine are an interference fit which works reasonably well.