Enconsiderate

Hi,

I am wondering how people rewire the pos. side of their battery. I want to replace the way it's set up now and run a gold connector to a 4 gauge wire then to the fuses (did that make sense?).

It's a stock set up as of now where there is a small fuse box conected to a small metal plate bent a 90 degree angle and connected to a battery terminal connector.

I want to eliminate that metal plate but I.m not sure on how to rewire. Can someone please give me inst. on how to?

Thanks

Ian

spurvo

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is room for this. Where are you going to put the small fuse box that is mounted to the battery with this set up? If all you are going to do is get a gold plated battery post, crimp or smush in a 3 inch length of 4 gauge wire, then smush the other end into a connector to bolt up to the fuse box, then I'm wondering why this will help? Or what will it help? Not to tread on the idea, just looking for why to do it?

Now, the way it is set up stock has the battery post mounted to the flat metal (zinc coated copper) plate with a bolt through it, that then has another flat metal plate that is mounted to the fuse box via two bolts on the battery side of the box, which also mount the high current lead to the starter (non-fused connection). So the major non-continuous interfaces are battery to post, plate to plate, and 2nd plate to fuse box. You are proposing battery to post, post to wire (crimped unless you have a solder pot like me), wire to plate (crimped again), then plate to fuse box. So again, why the move to a wire?

NukeGenius

Because some batteries do not have the posts close enough to the fuse box side of the battery therefore the 90 degree angle wont let you attach it right.

spurvo

OK, well then, I guess I would use a post with the bolt coming out at 90 degrees (most parts places got em), and just fab up a plated copper or steel strap (read stiff piece of reasonably well conducting metal) that makes up the distance difference between the post bolt and the hole on the fuse mount. Then just bolt it to the fuse mount. But that's only just me...

I shy away from the wires idea mostly because it is difficult to get good conductive contact with crimps, especially on large gauge wire which is typically comprised of not so many strands of pretty thick gauge wires. Further, the copper in the crimp will usually oxidize faster than a treated metal surface. That said, if you have high quality multi strand tinned wire to make the 4 gauge, and the crimp method is capable of getting most of the strands well connected, then you should be able to reproduce the stock connection.

Ummm... for my educational benefit, what batteries are being used that aren't sized or laid out similar to stock, and why? Is this like sealed dry cell Optima type? Do the posts on these not come in a form amenable to our car? Haven't researched this as much, as I decided to try moving the battery to sealed motorcycle batteries in the bins (a REAL re-wire!).

NukeGenius

I know that the Optima red top I bought was about an inch too far away from the fuse box to attach it, so I'll probably be looking at doing something like this in the future, but I was thinking about relocating to the hatch anyways.

Enconsiderate

Hey thanks for the advise!

The reason I'm doing this:

I have already bought a post with a bolt coming out at 90 deg. but it's crap! I bought it about two years ago and its all out of shape and corroded due to my last battery. I just dropped in a 51R optima yellow top and I want to put in a gold connector with multiple wire jacks. I will run a 4 or maybe even a 2 gauge high quality copper wire to that fuse terminal. I was thinking of relocating that fuse terminal near the driverside firewall.
The reason I want multiple wire jacks off of the gold connector is to run a new hot wire to my amp and a new hot wire inside my cab to power any new misc items i get for my car.