Registry of Ex Military Land Rovers
REMLR Technical => Electrical => Topic started by: NobleToad on September 29, 2025, 03:54:45 AM
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Honestly, I'm feeling pretty stupid right now. I have a 1989 GS. It has been sitting in storage for years waiting on me to finally begin a full restoration. Many years ago it ran just fine and was actually a daily driver for a while. Over the course of years, some parts have been scavenged off of it to repair an FFR. So here's the mystery?
I lifted up the passenger seat to access the battery compartment. There is an old dead battery in there which I intended to replace so I could get it running. There is a positive battery cable connected to the battery that disappears through a rubber grommet in the battery compartment. There is no negative cable. No cable at all. No battery connector, no wire, no rubber grommet, no obvious termination point. I crawled all over the insides and belly of the vehicle and cannot find a negative cable that may have been disconnected at the battery and is now hanging loose. Clearly this vehicle could not have started with only one battery pole connected. Where in the heck would the negative cable have been routed? Was it simply grounded to the frame somewhere or did it connect elsewhere in the engine compartment?
Any advice would be very much appreciated.
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Mate, I can assure you that it would have had a negative cable. The gremlins must have pinched it. It went through the seat compartment and bolted to the chassis nearby. Have fun getting it going again. You will find the engine will probably start on the 2nd turn!
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Yep. I definitely knew it had one at some point or it never would have run, but I have no recollection of pulling it. Someone else on the team probably used it in the FFR. I just couldn't make sense of where it should connect. Given the stone tools and sharp sticks tech level of this vehicle, I was betting it grounded straight to the frame, but I figured it was better to confirm before I did so.
Thanks for the quick reply!