Mar 1, 2007
Electrical work on the Yellow 90
“Buttercup” has been unhappy lately, simply not wanting to start unless the battery charger had been connected for a while. Like most Defenders has some “auxiliary electrics” – for that read “unlabeled rats-nest of wiring”. So after a few hours of tracing cabling and testing the battery we now have 1) labeled wiring and 2) a broken battery. The battery is an 11 month-old Deka Intimidator 9A34M (PDF link) AGM battery. Now I didn’t break the battery, and the good folks at Hensley Battery in Denver quickly replaced it. There were a couple of issues with some of the permanently connected accesories, but nothing an FIA-rated kill-switch can’t solve.
I’m also using the opportunity to install two batteries. This will increase the electrical performance, including more winching power and better starting from cold. Rather than install in parallel, I’m installing a Hellroaring Technologies battery isolator/combiner. I’m installing a single BIC95300B, and you can read all about that on their webpage! I’ll get around to installing this over the next few days.
I also noticed that some of the relays were positioned badly, picking up loads of crud in the battery compartment. At least so I don’t forget, the relay used for the rear worklamp is a Hella fused 15A relay, 4RA 003 510-36 aka 87108 in the US.
