Battery and fuel lines

Battery

The battery installation is fairly straight forward. There are three major components - the battery tray (which is stainless steel), the battery itself and the restraining bracket (which is a triangular fabrication in stainless steel), plus a few nuts and bolts to hold them in place.

The parts

The battery tray was installed in the nearside compartment and fixed to the floor. Some thin rubber strip was fitted in the tray to physically isolate the battery from the tray.

The tray in place without the rubber strip

The compartment opening had to be cut out a couple of millimeters each side to allow the battery to be put in to the compartment and tray.

The restraining bracket was bolted to the bulkhead (in front of the passenger footwell) above the centre of the battery to secure it in place. To do this I marked and drilled two holes through the bulkhead. Each bolt was passed from the passenger compartment, through a penny washer and into the compartment behind the front wheel arch. The bolts were inserted into an alli bar that had been tapped to take the bolts. The tapped holes in the bar had thread lock applied.

Again some rubber was fitted to the underside of the bracket (where it would touch the battery) to isolate it. Finally the bracket was fitted onto the two screw shanks and held in place with nuts.

The cables could now be connected. Mine wasn't, as other electrical work had not been completed, so I only connected the earth leads at this stage.

Battery and bracket installed

Fuel lines

There are two fuel hoses and the electrical connection to get from the pump into the boot.

Three holes were drilled in the boot upstand (the section that the tank goes against). These were drilled at the nearside, near the wheel arch, the top and bottom holes were level with the two unions on the tank. The top hose was a tad short, so the hole had to be re-drilled closer to the tank so that it would connect. The third hole, for the wires, was drilled in the middle of the other holes.

Holes marked

Each hole had the GRP thinned to allow a grommet to be fitted. The grommets were eased over the hoses and wires. A little Vaseline here helped! The 90 degree ends of the two fuel hoses had been removed before the grommets were fitted.

Now the hoses were threaded through to the boot from the axle area. The wires were fed through from the boot side to the axle area and the grommets secured in place. The wires were then connected to the pump. The grommets were siliconed in place and the unions re-fitted to the hoses.

Hoses and electrical cable from boot

Hoses and electrical cable from underside

The fuel tank installation will wait until another day.