Early HE battery problem solved

[dieselpower]

Hi All,

I have a 1983 HE. The battery died. No probs, I'll just buy a new one. Ha ha ha... then my problems started. It's quite a long story but the bottom line is, the battery tray is too small to fit a battery with enough oomph. I was a tad confused because the old battery fitted in the tray and was rated at 75aH and 650 CCA. After various useless telephone calls I spoke to Wayne at Advanced Batteries of Stockport Mcr. Firstly he questioned the credentials of the old battery and was telling me stories of how he had visited the Jaguar factory back in the day. He understood the problem immediately and said he'd phone me back in 30 mins. I never expected to hear from him again. Meanwhile I spoke to KWE and they recommended a Bosch S4005 (60aH 600CCA). I noticed that the dimensions of the battery would mean you would have to shave off the feet of the casing to get it into the tray but it seemed like the only solution to a problem that has been around for years and I thank Charles Knowles for his help. Then the phone rang, Wayne, in typically understated northern way he told me he could supply a battery that would do the job. I was sceptical. I told him the dimensions of the tray, he said "you'll be alright with this". I enquired as to the power of said battery "its labelled 70aH but I reckon it's good for 75aH" I then asked about the CCA? "630" came the answer. So it would fit the tray (allegedly) and out perform the Bosch. The Bosch is circa £82.00 delivered. The cost of the battery from Wayne at advanced? £74.00 delivered. The man seemed to know his stuff so I ordered the battery and he told me I would have it on Monday. The battery arrived on Saturday! I took it out of the box and it dropped straight into my unmodified tray in the car. Terminals in the right position, connected up, the plastic cover in place and it worked a treat. Wayne seems to have solved the problem. Time will tell as to the batteries performance especially in winter but so far so good. PS Wayne told me to look at the old battery and see if it had been messed about with, sure enough he was right, the footings of the plastic case had been hacked off to get it to fit in the tray. His immortal comment with reference to the old batteries alleged output was "You can do a lot with labels".

[steve_m]

I tried 'shaving' a battery for one of my XJS' once; ended up with a leaking battery so had to buy another one.

[dieselpower]

Would just like to add that I had an ignition amplifier failure and I had to crank the engine over many, many times in my attempts to cure it. I was sure the battery would loose power and fail to turn the V12 over but I was mightily impressed. It soldiered on until I cured the problem 2 days and many many minutes of cranking later. All praise to the supplier. Excellent bit of kit!