X/Flow replacement battery

[markdwhite]

Have owned my 91 Dedion 1700x/flow S/Sprint for three years now, just recently the old battery stopped holding a charge, so it was time for a new one. The car's original, so battery is under the carbs/column. I didn't fancy moving the battery and rerouting cables/bending stainless etc, so opted to remove the carbs/column and replace in existing position. The original battery had be replaced about 5 years ago, so the cost of an inlet gasket was no big shakes in that time.

 

That's when the fun started the old battery was a nobrand whatever marked as 054,xxxx 35Ah fron a Nissan Micra and the cable tails had already been adjusted for round clamped posts rather than square bolts. The battery case measured 190mm long 230mm high (inc terminals) 130mm deep and was a tight squeeze with the coils up as far it would go in the bracket. Found some good info on blatchat but investigating further found it hard to find many of the batteries in question locally (Sussex) and the postman doesn't like handling wet batteries! Phoning about and searching the good old World Wide Wait proved useful and frustrating as it sems that most 054,xxx batteries are now bigger same height/width but 230 to 240mm long, which would touch the column and may not have fitted down between the top chassis tubes. Anyway more hunting and found a few that should fit so here a few part numbers however it's always best to check for yourself just in case you have a differing config.

 

All the following have the connection the correct way so that + is to the outside and forward away from the column but some are square and others round.

 

Varta 545 077 030 for a Renault - 219mm w 225mm h 135mm d 45Ah 300A CC

Varta 530 030 030 3100 for a BMW r100/7 bike - 186mm w 171mm h 130mm d 30Ah 300A CC

Banner 010 545 770 0100/0101 for a Renault - 218mm w 225 h 135mm d 45Ah 300A CC

Banner 010 530 030 0100/0101 for a Minitraktorer, BMW-Motorcykler - 187mm w 165 mm h 128mm d 30Ah 300A CC

Halford HFB154 for a Reliant Robbin! - 195mm w 200mm h 125mm d 30Ah 260A CC (£45)

WestCo 12V31M (gel battery) a replacement for Mazda MX5 - 197mm w 170mm h 103mm d 31Ah 475A CC (£60)

 

No doubt there are many more from other manufacturers. I opted for the WestCo item, it's a gel battery so it could be posted and won't splosh if the scenery is passing fast :-), it's a nice small size and whilst it's only 30Ah the cold cranking rating seems high and being as Mazda guys fit these to MX/Eunos as replacements they obviously can crank over a 1.6 or 1.8 motors OK. I purchased the WestCo from www.mx5parts.co.uk, it appears these guys are the only importer I could find easily in the UK, but they sent it next day for an extra £8. Job done and back on the black stuff, hope it helps!

 

 

[Joe 90]

I'm not a big fan of gel batteries as I think they aren't as rugged as wet cells. If you buy a wet cell without acid, you can probably get a motorcycle dealer to fill it with acid for you, as they keep their batteries dry.

 

SEP field working, not spotted in 103,300 miles. Some photos on webshots, updated 25 Jan