Morris Minor Owners Club

Im hoping this battery terminal arrangement is not standard. I cant believe the clamp wuld be in such close proximity to the terminals by design...

Slacken the nuts off and mount it on the ridge lower down. The battery will have a stepped top, the clamp is sat too high in your photo.

My battery is 360 degrees to yours i.e. the positive terminal is to the right and rear . This means the clamp cannot foul the terminals although the previous comment and adjustment would help . Your configuration looks potentially dangerous ( in my opion ). Hope this helps .

Definitely needs moving! You may be able to clamp it lower down, but the real problem is that the battery fitted is suitable for positive earth, and from the picture, the car is now negative earth, which needs to have a battery with the terminals the opposite way round. A Varta B34 has a 45Ah capacity and is equivalent to an 049, which has a 'Terminal 1' layout. For negative earth it should have a 'Terminal 0' layout, and suitable batteries are:

063 45Ah
065 54Ah
075 60Ah

agreed
i will get a battery with the correct terminal arrangement

agreed
i will get a battery with the correct terminal arrangement

If there is nothing wrong with the battery - the cheaper way is to turn the battery through 180 degrees and fit longer battery leads.

Whilst you're changing things around, the negative temrinal should have a black ring around it, not both terminals with red. This are available from many auto electrical suppliers and are cheap.

thanks for the info

Any pics of of other battery installations please
are others all with the terminals towards the rear ?

We have an 075 battery and negative earth, which puts the terminals at the back.

The only diagrams that show the battery in the BMC Workshop Manual are for the MM and SII and show the terminals at the rear (in the case of the SII only 1 terminal!): The battery clamp is in a different position on the earlier cars and looks like it could have changed in 1956, with the introduction of the M1000, to the inclined version that clamps over the front edge of the battery.

Makes sense for the terminals to be at the rear, irrespective of battery polarity, to avoid the potential hazard of shorting the battery out.

Here is a picture of the battery in our 1959 Traveller from a few years ago. The car is negative earth.

1960 convertible negative earth.

terminals should deffo be at the bulkhead side

Agree with Biggles ,no matter what the earth arrangements are the terminals should be towards the bulkhead . The existing configuration looks dangerous !

COMMANDER wrote: ↑Wed Feb 06, 2019 3:20 pm 1960 convertible negative earth.
WP_20180902_14_32_27_Pro.jpg

I would be making longer J bolts to ensure the battery clamp was bearing on the corner, not the side, of the battery if the current J bolts are not long enough to secure the battery properly (with vertical and horizontal retention).

Many thanks for all the help and replies

For oliver90owner and others.
Hadn't noticed that in the photo. That pic was taken when I bought "Maurice". The clamp was soon moved to the proper place. Also, as you can see the bulkhead was filthy. It is now somewhat cleaner. There was at least 30 years worth of dust and grime, not only under the bonnet but everywhere. And yes I know that tin should not be there. Oops.

COMMANDER wrote: ↑Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:12 am For oliver90owner and others.
Hadn't noticed that in the photo. That pic was taken when I bought "Maurice". The clamp was soon moved to the proper place. Also, as you can see the bulkhead was filthy. It is now somewhat cleaner. There was at least 30 years worth of dust and grime, not only under the bonnet but everywhere. And yes I know that tin should not be there. Oops.
WP_20181208_15_31_37_Pro.jpg

My tempory fix is as you had it before.
Not ideal but better than what I had