battery relocation

[ga5speed02]

ok i have to run my battery in my trunk in my 02 SE.

what wiering stepts do i need to do?
what gauge wire do i run?

i know for the positive i hav 2 wires comming off the battery. 1 goes to the fuse box and the other goes to the altinator and starter. can i hook them 2 tozero gaug and run that to the trunk?

also same for ground. ihave 2 gnd wires comming off the battery

sorry if i am unclear. but any help moving the battery would be sweet

[car audio dave]

hey mike...for the power, get a distribution block and run 1/0 gauge wire. thatll give you more connections under the hood still in case you need them.

for the ground...just make sure those are connected to metal under the hood, and then run a new ground for the battery in the trunk. one of the grounds up front just goes straight to metal, the other goes to something else, so you can just connect those two together and leave it be. (i hope this makes sense)

[nineteen88ga]

its been discussed before a while ago, but Summit has battery relocation kits.

[ga5speed02]

ok cool thank guys. yea i have 0 ga i can use :) MORE POWER ooohohohoh (in a tim allen voice) :lol:

[ga5speed02]

steve i checked out summit. i have the box and tie downs and hardware. im just worrid abotu the wireing. i dont hink my kit has wire. some one gave me a chrome box for free :)

[dandragonrage]

www.weldingsupply.com - click on Category A and scroll to Welding Cable By the Foot. Pick up 20' of red and 5' of black 1ga, 1/0ga or 2/0ga. They've got cable lugs there and also cutters, though I just use a hacksaw for super thick cable. You can also get ring terminals pretty cheap on Ebay if you prefer. Might be easier.

Edit: If you've already got enough 0ga wire, then by all means use that. It's quite adequate, unless you're running some 300A alternator.

[area3]

So do you run both of the cables back to the starter battery or?:???:

[dandragonrage]

No, junction the starter, alternator and battery cable up front. Can be on the unswitched side of the fusebox or with a distribution block like the kind used for car audio.

The black wire is for a ground, and 20' of red wire will leave you with a few feet extra to upgrade the alt to junction wire. The starter to junction wire shouldn't need to be upgraded, but if you want to, you can throw some 4 gauge in there.

[ga5speed02]

Ok thanks dandragonrage.

yea am going to reuse the 0ga i had for my system. it already went from the battery to the trunk so i should have plenty :)

so it is ok to put the 2 cable wires off the battery into 1 wire back to the trunk on the positive side.

the gnd the 2 in engin bay somewhere and gnd the batt in the trunk.

is it really that simple??

[dandragonrage]

Yes, 0ga is plenty thick to handle that. As for a ground, just make sure you use a good ground, not some random little sheet of metal that's spot welded in 2 places to some other sheet of metal that's spot welded....etc. I'm not sure where the best ground point(s) in these cars are because I never put a system in mine, but a good ground for most cars is the rear seatbelt bolts.

Your "big 3" is now your "big 4" and they are:
-Alternator to junction +
-Junction to battery +
-Engine to chassis -
-Battery to chassis -

You should already have the second and fourth covered with an amp kit, just make sure to hit the other two.

[ga5speed02]

sweet thanks man

[ga5speed02]

should i run the positive wire from the engin bay to the battery threw the car or under the car

[dandragonrage]

Through is certainly better, but under can be done, just make sure to wireloom - and I'd tape over the wireloom just to help keep dirt and other crap out. Or you could shrinkwrap over wireloom if you wanted.

[ga5speed02]

ok cool i figured through is better just asking. thank a bunch

[car audio dave]

yea, ill agree that rear seatbelt bolt is best for ground. id run the wire through the inside ofthe car to avoid it getting cut from driving over road debris.

which batter are you using? cus also make sure that if its not a yellowtop then you need to vent it to the outside of the car.

[iceman]

If you are not fusing your junction from the front to the back (which is bad in the first place) then make sure whever you run a wire it's through a grommet.. Personally I wouldn't want my primary charging wire coming through the cabin, if it ever shorts it's a guarantee that the car burns to the ground.

Make a new ground in the trunk, as close to the battery as possible, and ground anything else in the trunk to that as well. Don't need to take it all the way to the seatbelt bolt.

Upgrade the charging wire from the alternator to your under-hood junction as well to something heavier duty than the BS 10gauge that's there now.

[ga5speed02]

seth, should i go with 8 or 4 ga?

good call abotu the fuse, that amp fuse should i use? im running 0ga all the way back

[iceman]

8 or 4ga for what? It all depends on distance and current my friend....

read and learn

http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp
http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/amps-wire-gauge-d_730.html

As for fusing your charge wire (I would use a circuit breaker instead) that also depends on the amount of current.. you'll need to add up what you have going on in the trunk then add x amount for the alternator to charge the car... and has to be larger than what the starter will draw as well.. too many variables here, you have to do some planning ;)

[amazingamse]

ga 5 spped, did you do this relocation yet? did you run into any suprises? what is a junction box? did you use a fuse breaker?

[DFizzle]

Brian, his other thread is here (http://www.gaownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74160).

(hope you don't mind my redirect Mike)