Recently having big problems with battery. Seems to be going flat most
days now, requiring an external charge every day to guarantee
starting. After charging it will start fine then I'll drive to work,
leave it 10 hours and try again where it will turn slowly and then
fire eventually. If I repeatedly try the ignition it usually becomes
too flat to fire after about 5 attempts - each attempt struggling more
and more to start the engine.

The battery is a year old and had always needed a charge every 2-3
weeks, which has never really been too much hassle as I don't use it
that much.

I think a may have killed it some months ago when a wheel brace slid
onto the positive terminal and bodywork making a short circuit causing
me to lose power while driving. Nasty smell and some smoke in boot.
The problems have just recently started though.

I think the alternator is charging ok as it will always start after
being driven for a while. Red warning light behaves normally. I don't
think I have a parasitic load as the car has no alarm or anything that
operates with the ignition switched off. I do have a multimeter to
test this but it needs new batteries!!

Another note is the engine to chassis earth wire does not have the
greatest connection (the grip on the engine only grips about 50% the
width of the mesh wire). But this has probably been like this for many
years and probably doesn't explain the recent problems.

It is a 1981 Clubman.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Kev