So I took the battery out of the car for access to work on some other stuff. When I was putting it back in I am now noticing that the cables are not long enough unless I move the battery (but then it isn't seated correctly, I assume that this was how it was setup before).

I know that I am not swapping the positive and negative cables around, even if I did they wouldn't be long enough. It looks like that thinner cable attached to the positive end is the problem.

Here is another picture of me pointing to the cable that is too short.

This is the same cable, it goes to this relay maybe (not sure to be honest what it is, but it only had one screw holding it in place so that needs to be fixed regardless).

I'm thinking this is for the headlight motors. I'd rather not make a new cable but if I have to I will. Anyone have any ideas?

 

I like to have the battery terminates on the inside of the engine compartment (closer to the rad). My thought on this is that the hood is higher in that spot and less chance of arching against the hood.

 

Looking at the photos in your other thread (lol) https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...-went-1153530/

I can see that you've moved your battery farther away, more toward the front of the car. Before on the left, after on the right...

 

Edit: Whoops! OK, now I get you. Looks like someone cut back the original cables to maybe get to the "good part"?!

The brown thing screwed to the strut towers for your fusible links, which are those looped wires and they act like fuses.

 

Well sounds like I might as well just make new battery cables that are the proper length then.

 

Is that the correct battery? Pos/neg post orientation appears incorrect.

 

^i agree. just rotate battery 90 degrees. positive terminal should be at the front of the car.

 

The positive terminal is indeed towards the front in the photos. I think the optical illusion is that the + cable on OEM is actually black (with a swaged terminal) and the negative connection is black with a yellow stripe. The fact the OP's positive is a clamp type screw terminal on what is likely shortened OEM wire makes it look like the negative lead.

 

Did you mean 180 degrees? I don’t think 90 degrees is correct, and the negative is too short to reach the far side of the battery was rotated 180 degrees. I think making new cables, although more work, is the best way to do it.

 

oh yeah, dang. it is 180.

 

I thought I'd post what I ended up doing to fix this. I ended up only redoing the smaller +12v cable that goes to the fusible links. The other two battery cables ended up long enough. I used 8 awg wire, I'm not sure what the original was but they are visually similar at least.