Battery specifications for 1995 Transit 2.5D

[dumper]

That’s the way you should always do it the same with jump leads earth on last and first off

[hetman]

My old MK4 1991 had dual battery L/R but my MK5 1997 had only one on the left. I was able to make room for a second 100Ah battery since it’s being built as a camper. Tight fit, careful when connecting right side battery, positive terminal very close to metal body of van. Remember always remove ground first then positive terminals, attach first positive then ground terminals. This avoids accidentally shorting the positive to the grounded body with a tool.


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Thank you for all of your help and information. You have a nice van and trailer!

[hetman]

You can never beat fitting the biggest battery you can physically get in the vehicle or if you are restricted on size get biggest power one you can get for the size as above always get a good name one

Thank you and I'm considering even modifying the tray to fit a longer battery in there..... I will stick with a good name, such as Bosch or Varta.

The Mk5 bonnet slopes towards the front quite a bit, just make sure that the frontmost terminal of a longer battery won't foul the underside of the bonnet
If ultimate battery power is your aim, then consider fitting a second unit on the other side of the engine bay.

Thank you. I noticed that today when I went out to measure the battery tray again and check tolerances, and really there is barely any room at all to increase the size of the battery! I'm going to stick with the standard size. I did go to the battery store today but that store was shut down this week!! So I'll have to wait a few days (major holiday weekend coming up here in PL).

[Peterr]

In my MK5, I had to remove a part of the side of the tray for my battery holder so I could fit the larger 100Ah battery in.

[dumper]

When I said biggest battery possible I was thinking power output of what you can physically fit

[bortaf]

back in the day you could buy a petrrol or diesel battery tray, only differance was which side of the engine bay it fitted and Mk3 trays where smaller than Mk4 so you could upgrade to a larger tray and battery but it seems nowdays they are all the same size ?

[dumper]

A bit out of the box thinking a mate of mine on his self built mk 2 camper fitted a standard tractor battery on the n/s/f chassis leg under the bonnet

[Altransit]

back in the day you could buy a petrrol or diesel battery tray, only differance was which side of the engine bay it fitted and Mk3 trays where smaller than Mk4 so you could upgrade to a larger tray and battery but it seems nowdays they are all the same size ?

The petrol van had the battery tray on the N/S/F, so one of these could be fitted to a diesel van as a second battery tray. I fitted one to my Mk5 and had a twin battery setup

[lalaser]

Just had a look on Halfords UK they recommended batteries is a Yuasa brand and it gives the amp hour as 75 amp as the standard replacement you’re battery has lasted 7 years I would be very happy at that it’s done well especially in Warsaw, Poland you get proper winters not like the UK.

Nice to hear from you, Dumper. I'll never forget how much help you have lent me in my many adventures with this van, and I have made a few updates to my project thread, if you care to take a look. No doubt you remember many of my challenges, and one of them has always been problems with starting this van, and with overheating. My van never had a factory installed glow plug system and I've experienced plenty of failures installing one, and since I have been using the van primarily in the winter, I have always had to use quick start fluid to start the engine, which is a royal pain in the rear. Part of the problem, no doubt, has been an undersized battery. Also, I just finished a valve job and planing of the head, replaced the head gasket (which was damaged, causing overheating, which I hope is now behind me), and installed 4 new Stanadyne injectors. The battery I bought 7 years ago, and is now gone, was underpowered and I don't know why the parts store said it was the right one when it wasn't. I'm going to buy a new battery tomorrow; thanks for your help!

Sounds like you’ve already tackled most of the major causes of your problems. If the head gasket was leaking and the injectors were tired, that alone could explain a lot of the hard starting and overheating issues. A proper high-CCA battery should make a huge difference too, especially with winter use and no factory glow plugs. Honestly, getting 7 years out of an undersized battery in Polish winters is pretty impressive. Hopefully with the rebuilt head, new injectors and a correctly sized battery the van will finally start and run the way it should.