Early Tuscan wiring
Discussion
After reading the sticky regarding the battery jump connector under the nearside, I thought it would be prudent to accustom myself with the said doggy connector.
With my car up on a ramp I was able inspect TVR's build quality in particular the wiring.
The worst nightmare of a TVR owner must be an electrical fire and I wanted to avoid this situation so I had a good look around the jump connector and battery wiring in general.
Firstly my battery wasn't actually screwed in, the battery clamp wasn't clamping and the battery was free to slide around in the battery tray.
The general wiring on a TVR (lights etc) all come from the fuse board. So if a fault were to occur it is reasonable to expect a fuse to blow and a fire averted.
HOWEVER, the wiring from the battery to the fuse board, the starter motor and the alternator does not have the luxury of an inline fuse and a fault in any of these and their associated wiring will cause a burn up of the wiring and possibly result in a serious fire.
On inspection I was horrified to find that the wiring from the battery to starter motor and alternator was ty-rapped to the chassis, these ties are so tight that they had cut into the insulation of the cable. Additionally where the cable crossed various sharp edges of the chassis there was no additional protection employed and these edges too had dug into the insulation.
Remedy, remove stainless steel chassis plate to permit access to the cable. Wrap the cable with a layer of nylon spiral wrap and re-secure to the chassis with ty-raps but this time not so tight as they cut into the insulation.
Mine is an early MK1 (2000) so quality may have improved in later builds. However better to know and advert a possible fire.
With my car up on a ramp I was able inspect TVR's build quality in particular the wiring.
The worst nightmare of a TVR owner must be an electrical fire and I wanted to avoid this situation so I had a good look around the jump connector and battery wiring in general.
Firstly my battery wasn't actually screwed in, the battery clamp wasn't clamping and the battery was free to slide around in the battery tray.
The general wiring on a TVR (lights etc) all come from the fuse board. So if a fault were to occur it is reasonable to expect a fuse to blow and a fire averted.
HOWEVER, the wiring from the battery to the fuse board, the starter motor and the alternator does not have the luxury of an inline fuse and a fault in any of these and their associated wiring will cause a burn up of the wiring and possibly result in a serious fire.
On inspection I was horrified to find that the wiring from the battery to starter motor and alternator was ty-rapped to the chassis, these ties are so tight that they had cut into the insulation of the cable. Additionally where the cable crossed various sharp edges of the chassis there was no additional protection employed and these edges too had dug into the insulation.
Remedy, remove stainless steel chassis plate to permit access to the cable. Wrap the cable with a layer of nylon spiral wrap and re-secure to the chassis with ty-raps but this time not so tight as they cut into the insulation.
Mine is an early MK1 (2000) so quality may have improved in later builds. However better to know and advert a possible fire.
Sounds like someone may have put the wrong battery in as some with the same code do not have the same clamping blocks on the bottom edges. It's also not great having the live terminal of the battery very close to both steel chassis rails and the ends of the threads of the engine mounts separated by a heat mat that's not really held in place.
There should be a fuse on the main feed in the passenger footwell and one on the line to the alternator in a box fastened to the back of the starter.
As someone that has suffered such a battery fire due to the anderson socket, I can confirm that being woken in the early hours of the morning by a neighbour shouting about smoke coming from your car is not a great experience..
There should be a fuse on the main feed in the passenger footwell and one on the line to the alternator in a box fastened to the back of the starter.
As someone that has suffered such a battery fire due to the anderson socket, I can confirm that being woken in the early hours of the morning by a neighbour shouting about smoke coming from your car is not a great experience..
Gassing Station | Tuscan | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff