Battery probs ,,flat every morning

Hi guys , hope you had good xmas and wish you a great new year.

I have probs and I,m novice landy driver..

Defender 300TDI 1994 on a M reg.

Fitted new alternator due to old one being goosed ,, though my mechanic insisted it was fine even though I broke down on way home from his garage after he fitted water pump,
say no more.. I fitted new alternator and battery (096) around September this year.
Not much later I start noticing my landy isnt starting 1st time every time and getting worse every morning,, this seemed to be morning only and when jump starting her it was never easy, starter always tick tick tick and no engine turn over.
I carry my old battery in the back always charged incase of emergency, which is every morning now.
Now the bad bits ,, I have Audi A8 power seats instead of landy seats, so I cant get to my battery easily,, hence the spare battery in the back to power the seats to allow removal.
I have a direct live lead from battery to my rear cabin so I can apply power if needed.
CONFUSING??? Yeah me too..

Due to work ect I have just had to deal with this problem and bump start every morning from a hill, which aint good.

Yesterday I had a look under bonnet looking for a bad earth lol I dont even know what I am looking for ,,,, and I found a burnt out wire ( really bad , it disintegrated in my hand)
which looked like an earth from my bulkhead to the under side of the bonnet, the bulk head eyelet was attached to the bulk head behind the master cylinder at the 3 rubber grommets which led to the under side of bonnet,... to an eyelet and self tapper screw.

I have renewed this wire and it seemed to make my spot lights and roof lights shine brighter ( I had noticed recently they were really weak), or maybe I am going nuts.

Does any of this make sense to any one ??? I am a humble joiner and electrics aint my thing.

I have scoured the net and I cant find anything on an earth cable linking bulk head to bonnet..

Please any advice,, apart from put into garage

Ta Deano

For turning the starter over the only earth connection that you're concerned about is from the starter back to the battery neutral. As the starter is bolted to the engine then the actual connection only needs to be from the engine to the battery. This could be a direct cable or one from the engine to the body and another from the body to the battery. As long as the cables and the connections are good and clean then it makes no difference.

A fairly simple way to check this is to use a jump start lead. Connect one end to a good clean place on the engine and the other to the battery negative. If one lead isn't long enough use two joined together. If the starter spins over then you've got a problem with the car's earth connections.

Why dont you just try your good spare battery on the car and if it goes flat then you know there is a drain some where, if its ok you know its the battery

Thanks guys ,, I am going to try the other battery and leave it a couple of days, still cant get my head round the earth from bulkhead to bonnet though. Ta

I doubt that is an earth

Yeah me too but I cant understand why it was burnt to disintegration?
It crumbled away in my hand,

deano75 said:

Yeah me too but I cant understand why it was burnt to disintegration?
It crumbled away in my hand,

Click to expand...

The wire had perhaps corroded inside the plastic sheath until it became too thin to carry the load, it then got hot and burnt. Bad connections can produce the same problem.
Bad connections can also stop the battery charging fully.
New batteries can and do fail, sometimes after a few weeks use especially if they have been allowed to regularly drop below 50% charge. alternators can also drain the battery.

have you checked what drain your putting the battery under. it might be more than you think. There are a few good video on you tube showing how to do it if your not sure, just don't have any think turned or when you do it.

If the engine is not earthed properly back to the battery then the current will find another route back to the battery probably through the frazzled wire.

Earth leads onto bonnets are to reduce radio interference. Do as Dogsbody says and run a jump lead from batt neg to the engine block and try cranking. if it fixes it you have a batt to chassis or chassis to engine/gearbox earth problem.