which battery? (small fire last night....)

[polanski]

Hi, last night I had a fright. I forced the drivers seat back hard and the metal cover (insulated on the inside) was forced down so much that the terminals of the battery connected through the cover. Smoke, small flame, very frightened me. So, my 86 Devon needs a new bat. But which one? I'm not worried about make etc, just specifications. The old one was the following: 71 AH, 680 Amps, Reserve capacity 130 mins. Should I just look for something similar? My van only has one battery, weve never had a problem with this one, but I wanted to ask as I have no idea what these numbers mean. cheers, Robbie

[Aidan]

those numbers are fine, most good factors will be able to look up the correct battery in a book, so you have the correct size, correct terminals and correct polarity
Bosch used to be noticeably better than others but I'm not sure that's so true these days, but I know the cheap ones only just make it to their warranty usually.
VW sell Varta these days, I've had a couple and one was quite poor but exchanged under warranty no problem

[Oldiebut goodie]

Try recharging the battery - it may well survive! I short out batteries whilst desulphating them - as long as it was of short ( ) duration the plates will be OK. You may even have done it some good!

[CovKid]

Euro car parts do a good replacement for approx £55. Lively things too.

[bigherb]

Think the problem is you have got the wrong battery in there. It is to tall for the housing.
Any of these batteries will fit depending on how much battery capacity you want.
063 45Ah
065 50Ah
075 55Ah
096 65Ah

[CovKid]

I believe the 096 is the one they do for £55 - bargain.