Battery tray and strap

[Parker3865]

Asking for a friend:
He has a 350 sport, kink frame K? no plastic body work at the rear. He cannot work out how the battery should be retained. The tray does not seem to have any provision for a rubber strap
Any ideas?

20241011_092143.jpg (272.74 KiB) Viewed 5434 times

[3potjohn]

On my K1 there is a hook facing forwards on the front top face and a flat plate at the rear edge about half as high as the front with a horizontal slot. I acquired a suitable-ish strap but fashioned a hook to engage the slot as both ends terminated in a pin. I use PC680 batteries or very similar.
That was in 2007 and as I am currently staring at the Med for a few days cannot do better than that describe from memory. I think the one in your image matches some on ebay in Europe. Looks to have a turned edge underneath.
I have only seen my version. Someone more knowledgable will know.

[Morini Jen]

Hi Richard.
My K1 has the same battery tray as your friend's bike. I have always bodged the battery in with various bits of old inner tube and cable ties which of course is thoroughly unbecoming and unsatisfactory, even if it can't be easily seen. The tray that 3potjohn describes sounds like this one on ebay... 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402163290982

I would have thought it would be fairly easy to fashion a couple of hooks and rivet them onto the existing tray and use a proprietary strap. Do you remember what set-up your K Sport had?..( Saw your holiday snap in Classic Bike ).

Still, having said that, does your friend's bike have a flat metal section welded to the frame, above the battery, with two threaded holes in it? That's what my bike has. I believe the threaded holes are for a couple of screws which bear down on a metal plate which sits on top of the battery. I do have one of those metal plates although I've never got around to trying to fit it. If I can find it this weekend I'll post a photo.

[pkempen]

Thanks for the replies. I am the friend Richard is talking about, and the bike is a 31/2 Sport. First registration was March 1981 so I assume it was built in 1980. The battery tray has no hooks on it, and no sign that there ever were any, but the frame does have the strip across the top tubes, over the battery, and yes there are two threaded holes in it, I wondered what they were for. Any chance anyone out there has a picture of the screw down plate in place?

[Parker3865]

Morini frame.jpg (227.11 KiB) Viewed 5337 times

[Parker3865]

Morini frame.jpg

[Morini Jen]

... Any chance anyone out there has a picture of the screw down plate in place?

Here you go...

[3potjohn]

Reckon it could be knocked up ( to use an expression with three meanings) out of stainless steel sheet.

[Andy_C]

Mine has exactly the same stainless steel "top clamp" for want of a better description so is probably the OE item.

With a MottoBat battery I have had to stick a thick layer of neoprene sheet to mine so that it holds onto the battery,

[3potjohn]

I used a PC 680 battery for years but now use a Xtreme 600 battery. About the same size but slightly less talk. A rubber block found at the roadside pads it out. My kind of fix too.

[Al Limite]

I have a 1981 K Sport with what I believe to be original battery fixtures. The tray is identical to the OP posted photograph. The top metal plate has been secured with the same knurled top threaded bolts that hold the side panels in place. I have used large rubber bulkhead type grommets ( electrical cable type ) inline on the bolts between the threaded top plate and the metal clamp and the battery top, in order to minimise vibration. I have also trimmed expanded foam water pipe lagging to isolate the battery from the frame.
Unable to attach photographs.

[pkempen]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I can see what I need and it should be easy enough to "knock one up".