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MG MG Y Type - Battery Box

I kept a cloth inside the battery box for odd cleaning jobs but have found it rotting away. It has dawned on me that perhaps the box lid cover is a bad idea which traps some rather corrosive and inflammable gasses from battery venting. perhaps ventilating holes should be drilled into this cover or even discarded. I must say that I have never heard of anyone loosing their eyebrows due to a fire ball, but I have noted it gets rusty inside the box rather quickly. Bryan
B Mellem

Interesting Bryan. Never had that problem and I carry a lot of stuff in my battery box besides a battery. I would check your charging system as if the battery is heavily venting acid it sounds to me as if it is marginally over charging.

Paul
Paul Barrow

The regulator is a new replacement along with the battery, but it did seem on the ammeter to be charging at a constant 10 amps so I have given it a little tweek down to 5 amps. The cloth in question is a natural fibre one, but over the years has eaten other ones. I still wonder if a box cover is a good thing. Bryan
B Mellem

You could always leave the lid on the shelf Bryan. I would go a long way before drilling any holes though as that is somewhat irreversible. Before you do that though, try storing your stuff in an inert container inside the battery box possibly.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Bryan: I think Paul is right about the overcharging, and even though you've tweaked the charging rate down to 5 amps, it still may be too much, and cause gassing. The charging rate should settle at about 2 amps max once the starting charge has been replaced. If you use the lights or wipers, the regulator will step in to raise the output.

If you still get problems with corrosion or damage, try spraying round the inside of the battery box with WD40, and wiping it across all surfaces to provide an inert oily film.
Tim Griggs

Thanks Tim, Its a bit tricky as you know just tweaking the regulator, and not to be advised but there was obviously something wrong with its setting. Failing the requirement for the correct ambient temperature and good voltmeter, I set the regulator after a short warm up run to display zero on the ammeter with the head lights on main beam and the engine revs running at 2000 [I have fitted a rev counter]. The ancient sticking ammeter cannot be relied on but it does settle down to display 5 amps off load give or take a needles width. I will need eventually to get to the bottom of it, maybe one cell is sagging a bit. Bryan
B Mellem

REgarding the battery box I wouls like a small clarification... I see in one of the manuals that there is a bracket going across the front of the battery box. This is to retain the battery in it's place inside. However my battery box although have the two large holes in the front panel has other things attached so that this bracket cannot be fitted there. Please advise. Car is YB 1953 YB 1407
G.R Cotter

Gordon

Do you have a copy of Let there be Ys? If so see page 268 of the book. Hope that clarifies this for you.

Paul
Paul Barrow

This thread was discussed between 24/10/2014 and 30/11/2014

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