P3 Battery Earth Cable.

[Pigbog]

Hi folks, does anyone happen to know the approx length of the P3 battery earth cable and where it should be bolted to? Also, anyone know a source of new front coil springs - mine appear to have sagged somewhat over the years! The car is a '48 60.
Thanks, Matt Jagger.

[lakesrally]

I cannot give you an exact figure as I am away from home at the moment and will not be back for another week but it is not long, about a foot, and I would have to look at the car to tell you where it is bolted to, it's over 20 years since I put mine on and I cannot remember now where it goes. I'm sure someone else will be able to help though.

[RobHomewood]

Sorry for jumping in to this thread but I am also wondering about the earth strap from the engine -in this case on my P2 DHC. Mike Evans thought it should be on the gearbox to the chassis but I cannot see anything at all there on mine or anything which looks like a terminal. Should there be an earth strap (nothing obvious in the parts book) or does it rely on the gearbox mounting straight on to the chassis?
regards Rob Homewood

[Pigbog]

I cannot give you an exact figure as I am away from home at the moment and will not be back for another week but it is not long, about a foot, and I would have to look at the car to tell you where it is bolted to, it's over 20 years since I put mine on and I cannot remember now where it goes. I'm sure someone else will be able to help though.

Thanks Stewart. In the end I found a handy spot at the front of the wheel arch, close to the battery box cable outlet, and reused the old cable (after buying a new one from the local motor factors and finding that I could easily pull the cable out of the terminal - shocking quality!).

I'm still looking to increase the front ride height a bit. Does anyone have information on new coil springs or the spacers/shims mentioned in the workshop manual?

[Pigbog]

Sorry for jumping in to this thread but I am also wondering about the earth strap from the engine -in this case on my P2 DHC. Mike Evans thought it should be on the gearbox to the chassis but I cannot see anything at all there on mine or anything which looks like a terminal. Should there be an earth strap (nothing obvious in the parts book) or does it rely on the gearbox mounting straight on to the chassis?
regards Rob Homewood

Hi Rob, all I can tell you is that the P3 has a short cable from the nearside of the gearbox to the chassis. I should imagine your gearbox is on rubber mounts?

[RobHomewood]

The gearbox is on a support cradle solidly bolted to the chassis with a rubber insert under the gearbox itself. The only reference I can find to earthing the engine/gearbox is an item in the parts book called 'Cable,engine to earth' part no 40428 but as it is not shown in any illustration I cant identify whether it exists or not. A photo or description from another P2 would be great if anyone can help?

[luli]

You can see it on the top right side of the following picture (taken from a LHD car):

[deckell]

Matt, the earth strap on my p3 is a very short possibly fourteen inches in length and is attached to the body adjacent to the battery box. i had a problem with the starter being a bit lazy on turning the motor over on start up. i had an old vacuum cleaner which had seen better days. so i cut the lead off the cleaner and paired back the three wires in the cable ( the cable was a reasonable size diameter) and twisted them together and put a terminal lug on both ends.i then attached one end to the motor on the left hand side and threaded the other end back through the chassis to the back and then across to the battery and attached to the earth terminal surprise you would not believe the difference it made.i purchased some new front springs from Barry Kent at( the hollow stoke ferry norfolk) i hope this will help in your endeavours.kind regards Derrick.Smith from down under.

[RobHomewood]

Thanks for the photo Luli- I couldnt see the earth cable on line because the photo was cropped but found it when I re-opened it as a jpeg. Unfortunately I still couldnt find the real thing on my car! If I have orientated myself correctly in your photo the earth cable is from a bolt at the rear of the gearbox down to the mounting cradle bolt on the chassis. It seems mine must have been lost at some time. The engine is obviously being earthed somehow through ancillary connections maybe but this fails when the engine gets hot. It will be interesting to see what happens if I can get a proper earth strap fitted.
Rob

[luli]

You have got it - your description is correct. Sorry for the poor quality picture, this is the only one I have with the full length of the cable, on others only part of it is seen. On some cars I had found a flat braid, not a cable, braid like the one which had been used to suppress radio interference in the old days...
N.B I have found a better picture (I hope), and you can see the red cable:

(Right click on it and select "view image" or "open in another tab" to see the whole picture)