battery, what is this wire?

Hey up, I found a lose wire in the battery area housing. I dont recall seeing it before, is something up? here are some snaps.

so here we can see a wire clearly to the terminal



but no wire to this terminal



but this is the wire I noticed just laying on the flooor of the battery housing area



any ideas? is it an earth or should it be connected to the battery?

cheers

also noticed this connection on the back, looks as if it splits off to the main one connected to the rear by tow bar and then this one just sitting on the other side on rear cross member.



any ideas what its all about and why I would have two of these connections on the rear.

wont be one going to the negative terminal as that just goes straight to the chassis. The mystery wire wont be an earth else it would just short the battery out. Looks like someone has run a seperate power supply to somthing like extra lights or somthing. ive got that one on the back as well from memory and if so its never been plugged in.

the loose black ones just off a seperate feed, dunno what to , but give it a pull and try na dtrace it, if its been cut , dont worry, you might find something that wornt work so just earth it close to its self, and ignor the mystery tail

the other socket is found on a few, never used on me self either , just let it hang there ,

cool will do then. was proding about with screwdriver today under the landy and I made a hole in one of the joints near the bumper connection area (pretty small mind you). if this end needs replacing at some put is it similar to the rear cross member? which is one unit. the rest of the chasis does feel very solid. can I put galvanised rear cross member on back, even tho rest is standard? I couldnt see any joints where the rear cross would attach. Does this mean they just cut it out and weld a new in place?

Oh I noticed some 6-7mm drill holes in the top of my old bumper, I think that some lights may have been in situ. could be to do with that. found out today that battery have different starting up power, as my mate was told he had wrong one. I have a 550 amp, is this normal for the landy and when I install my winch would it just need the same battery? or should I get a bigger start up power? wont be using winch to often, once every week or so.

rear crossmemer replacment ull need to cut the old one off and weld on a new one. not sure if glavanised ones are available. Not a good sign you can put a hole in it near the front. If your gonna have to start replacing bits mite be worth looking at investing in a brand new chassis. holes could well ov been for lights which could explain the mystery wire. As for fitting a winch ull want a deep cycle battery and ull probably want that as well as ur current one and use a split charge system. from memory 550 amps is the norm.

has heard of galvanised chasis costing £1200. but how much would it bloody cost to fit it? massive job right?

I got me a defender 90, 200tdi 1991. would ya say it be worth replacing the whole chasis, or getting another if it got to the point it needed a whole new chasis?

just saw this on ebay but for t5?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Land-Rover-Defender-T5-90-Galvanised-Chassis_W0QQitemZ350308338187QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item5190010a0b

yer would be a big job to. kinda depends on the condition of ur body work and if ur able to lift it up in one go. replacing the rear cross member isnt too bad. not sure about replacing the front section. id imagine it would be costly as the engine would have to be taken out at a guess as i think you can only buy front quarter sections. so by the time youve messed around removing the wings and engine to do the front and then the rear tub to do the rear cross member ur half way to taking everythin off. but as i say not entirly sure about the work required to do the front. depending on how big the area of rust is at the front you mite be able to patch it.

probs best to do a search bout the chassis and if you cant find anythin start a new thread about it.