Ferrari Mailing List: Re: bloody 308 battery.....

[Dennis Liu (bigheaddennis]

Gavin wrote:

>I blow up my work van yesterday and thought "no worries I will drive the 
Ferrari" but the battery was dead flat.... again!
The battery is such a pain to get to that I am thinking of a couple of 
mods....

One is hooking up two wires just under the hood connected to the terminals 
(positive very well protected from arcing) for connecting the charger... 
without having to take out the water bottle, spare wheel and cover....

And also thinking of fitting a marine type battery shut off swtich under the

hood so the clock and such do not drain the battery after a few a weeks.
With my Rolls that is easy... just pop boot (trunk to you US people) pull 
the velcro cover off and pull the earth off the battery.

Battery is 6 months old... but the car is geting left used because of the 
rain we are having here this winter in NZ!!!  damn it...

I did get it going late today after taking the battery to the auto 
electrical guy to charge it as it was so flat my toy charger would not touch

it!

==================

Gavin, if the battery is so dead that your charger would not resuscitate it,
then it's likely toast.  A battery cut off can kill the drain (tho you might
be curious as to what's causing the drain in the first place), but if you're
going to the trouble of cutting off the battery, why not just spend 3
seconds plugging in a charger/tender?

For those of us with batteries that aren't easy to access, just spend 10
minutes wiring up a plug for the battery.  Below is something I posted to
the List a few years ago:

The "Battery Tender" by Deltran, and sometimes marketed under other names,
is intended exactly for this purpose -- to maintain the battery. I've used
one on my motorcycles for several years, and the 996 and 355 as well with no
problems. More info can be found here:
http://www.batterytender.com/index2.html

It comes with two methods of attachment to your battery -- regular alligator
clamps (like on jumper cables), or a connector where the ends terminate in
metal o-rings (like a washer). Each method connects to the charger through
a little plug-together connector. The o-ring connectors, intended for
semi-permanent mounting, slip right through the bolts used to attach your
terminals to your battery. Then simply tie down the length of the wire,
until you have only the other connector poking out into the trunk. Thus,
when you're in the garage, pop the lid, snap the two connectors together,
and voila!

Alternatively, one can get a charger that attaches, piggyback style, to the
battery (the most popular is manu. by Schumacher, and sometimes marketed as
a "factory" charger, e.g. Ferrari); the 120v plug is located inside the car;
you just have to connect an extension cord when needed.

Why do I consider the Deltran method better? Well, I'm presuming that the
Schumacher is also a computer controlled charger like the Deltran. The
primary advantage, in my mind, is that you don't have the charger sitting in
the car -- only the wiring. Thus, (a) it's lighter, (b) you can use one
charger for more than one vehicle if you alternate, (c) the wire coming out
of the trunk is thinner and you can in fact close the lid with the wire
dangling out, if you wanted to do so, you can put the cover over the car,
(d) I guess if the car gets stolen, you didn't lose the charger as well, (e)
if the circuit breaker (or whatever) inside the Schumacher fails, it melts
INSIDE the car, right next to your battery; I'd prefer to have the thing
melt down outside my car, not in it!!, and (f) another "clean" method of
attaching a battery tender is to go to Radio Shack and buy a cigarette
lighter adapter with a 9 foot cord attached. Then wire this into the "hard
wire" connector kit, by removing the o-ring connectors and splicing in the
cigarette adapter instead. No having to pop the hood anymore, just remove
cigarette lighter and plug in, provided that the cigarette lighter is
POWERED when the key is off.

Voila! And if you think the rings to the battery posts look "small", keep in
mind that they are designed not to fit over the battery post, but rather
over
the bolt that secures the wires to the post....
________

Since I wrote it, I think you can now buy the adapter that allows you to
plug it into the cigarette lighter (again, need to check and make sure that
the outlet is wired to be on with the ignition off).

Hope this helps!

vty,

--Dennis