The 'E' Type Forum

Hi, I needed a replacement battery for my Series 1 (1966) and was recommended a couple - most recently the Yuasa 1000 which, while it fitted the tray, did not fit the top plate.

Does anyone have any recommendations? (preferably nothing Chinese!)

thanks

A search on here for battery in the topic title (advanced search) gives this
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17710&p=144531&hili ... ry#p144531

Reference is given to the Halfords HB30 which seems to be discontinued, but they have a similar one HCB068.
As can be expected prices have increased to circa £130.

There are other batteries from Tayna you can search for approx CCA and then check the sizes

Geoff

Yes I saw that & found the 030 was no longer available - before trying a third battery I wondered whether anyone else had recently had success in fitting the alternative - as the post you refer to notes, advertised dimensions can differ from reality!

The 030 battery is a standardised size (the HB stands for Halfords Battery) so check out this one: https://www.thebatteryshop.co.uk/yuasa- ... 8774-p.asp

You will see it has 030 and the 068 equivalent numbers in the code. Yuasa are very high quality and fitted as standard to Toyota/Lexus cars.

Not to everyone’s taste as it is red…however Optima AGM batteries have really strong cranking capacity for their size…and in winter when I have not used the car for a few weeks will turn the engine over enough times to coax a cold grumpy engine into life….

Question for OP - did you ever find something suitable for the top plate? I am having the same issue - documented 030 dimensions are often larger than the top plate allows, although some batteries are smaller than documented.

Before I go trial and error, has anyone fitted a battery recently that definitely fits the top plate and tray, with the posts at the front the correct way round? Thanks!

The easiest thing would be for you to take the top plate and go and try it out in the shops....or not?

PierreW wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 24, 2025 7:05 am

The easiest thing would be for you to take the top plate and go and try it out in the shops....or not?

I'm going to try that this weekend. In the UK, many parts stores don't have everything out on the shelf so can be tricky - Halfords is the only one I can think of where I can actually try!

I will update if I find something suitable.

Some small car parts shops have batteries "out the back" so you have to ask...also farm supplies outlets and Agricultural supplies have quite a few if your rural...Steve

So I just went to Halfords armed with my brand new top cage - not sure where it is from, but looks similar to the kit supplied by SNB.

The newer version of the Halfords battery linked above (068) doesn't fit - it is slightly too long. A 005 does, but is a little too high to fit under the heater box. 012 and 063 fit (a bit shorter but will clamp in place fine). They have lower capacities (450cca) - not sure if that will cause a problem?

I also bought a halfords battery, I can't remember which one though but I had trouble getting the top plate to fit, the problem was that the bit where the terminals connect was lower than the rest of the battery, the leads could not come from behind aa the posts were too low.. if i bought the leads from the front or sides they would touch the top plate , I ended up making a piece of wood to pack the plate up and machining some terminal extenders with an m8 thread, I then tapped the battery posts m8 and screwed the extenders in , this allowed the leads to miss the plate.

See similar topics below....the top clamps if not original typically dont fit and need work....Steve

So to update - a Halfords HCB005 fits well. It is slightly shorter than the clamp plate, but the same width. With the included rubber inserts it holds down securely with the terminals correctly configured:

On my Halford battery, don't remember which, I had to slightly chamfer the locking frame adjacent to the terminals as they seemed too close to the frame.