Nosferatu

Moving the battery to the rear bin has some questions pop up and looking into input what others have done. Trying to figure out wire gauge to use as moving the battery is adding weight and causing me some logistics issues..

Namely the oem engine ground terminates at the battery via the strut tower chasis ground, so cutting that there then isn't grounding the battery to the engine as was oem...planning on a aftermarket ecu and don't want potential engine sensor noise and offsets..would a 4 gauge ground be to good enough to run from the starter ground back directly to the battery? stock starter,battery postive and engine grounds look to be 4awg...can go to 2 awg. but that makes that ground harder to route the shortest route...which is up through and in conjuction with the speedo cable and back along the top of the trans tunnel(can go underneath and up through one of the 2 holes under the armrest consel but that area really gets hot.)

that brings me to the second issue...

Running electric power steering and a 2 speed taurus fan (need the high speed amp. pig for a/c) all big draws at mainly idle/low speeds which is the worst ..upping the alternator to 130 amp contour. that means rebuilding the engine harness..stock alternator line looks 8awg and fused at the main terminal block.... trying to package that plus a large gauge alt. wire back into the stock harness is a pain ..was thinking of 6gauge in conjuction with the stock alt.8awg line or 4 awg and cuttting the alt. line off leaving the ring with the main cabin line feed.... stereo types upgrading the "big 3" run huge 1/0 gauge for that..that's adding a lot of weight plus packaging issues so thoughts and suggestions? cheers

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

for the one i am doing now, i was thinking about leaving the stock cables and using the BMW style jump points, so you can jump start the thing from under the hood.
also valid to leave the section of cable from the engine to the body.

Nosferatu

Thanks for the input...since I have the engine harness out to rebuild/rewrap was debating on upping the wire gauge on the ground and starter cables,but factory crimps are still good and factory lugs are heavy duty...can't find lugs like that plus getting a good crimp on the wire is important, so just mite keep those and cut the ground at the strut... I'll still keep the stock factory strut tower ground point either way but add another at the starter bolt back to the battery,that is pretty much copying the oem ground line. trying to get an idea of a good size for cabling without adding more unneeded weight and work...cheers

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i've done that, you just leave the factory cables and add the ones to the rear (or wherever you put the battery)

JerryLH3

iTrader: (11)

I tried to do my battery relocation as simply as possible. Battery is in passenger side bin. I grounded with a 1 gauge battery cable straight to the chassis (probably 18 inches in length). I ran a 1 gauge battery cable to a 150 amp circuit breaker which leads to a distribution block. From there, two cables branch out: a 2 gauge straight to the starter lug, and a 4 gauge straight to the 100A main fuse. For now, the stock battery cables have had the terminals removed and been capped off. I kind of like the idea of making them jump points, which is something I hadn't thought of.

Nosferatu

Yes pretty much exactly how I plan to do the relocation...1/0 gauge out of the battery via 150 amp breaker mounted on the battery in pax. bin to driver side through the front harness grommet and to a junction block below the master cylinder, 2 gauge from junction block to starter positive(removing the whole stock positive line from the engine harness), 4 gauge 12volt junction block to the main fuse...short battery chassis ground in the pax. bin...keeping the stock engine ground in the harness to the strut tower...only difference running an additional 2 gauge up through the speedo grommet from the starter bolt directly to the battery via the top of the tranny tunnel(shortest cable run)...as oem has the engine grounded to the starter bolt/strut tower/battery...running an additional 4 gauge in the engine harness to the main fuse block to upgrade the alt. wiring....this is the cleanest routing I think also...cheers