Battery cable routing

[cwylie]

Is this a good place or am I going to run into issues. Just want to check before a bolt them down.

[rickpaw]

That's how I ran my cables too. So far no issues.

Tu

[cwylie]

You just use cushion clamps to mount them?

[randy]

instead of going thru the backseat I'm going to go towards the fender. Use a grommet to pass thru the area where the rear side window is and ill place the battery in the passenger rear

[rickpaw]

You just use cushion clamps to mount them?

Yes.

[GregWeld]

Remember that stuff vibrates -- thus RUBS -- constantly while the car is in motion. On a Yacht - you must anchor wires every 6 inches... I pretty much use the same rule when doing automotive. The LAST thing you need is a hidden cable shorting out.

IF there is any metal near the piece (hot wires) I wrap the hot with extra abrasion protection. I also never just pass hot wires thru a body with or without a grommet. I use bulkhead fittings like the ones shown in picture.

Also -- not sure why you're running a ground cable like that. The body and chassis are "ground" --- so you could have saved yourself a lot of cable by just running the ground from the battery to a good spot (clean metal with star washers or a good welded stud) as close to the battery as you can (making it all look good and having some flexibility to move the battery with still being hooked up etc.

I then add a short piece of ground between the motor and chassis.... remembering that this needs to be able to handle 200+ amps... If you don't think you have a good enough contact between body and chassis - you can also add a short ground strap between the body and chassis.

[JKnight]

I like that the bulkheads you used don't seem to require a ginormous hole. What brand/source are they?

[cwylie]

I got the kit from DSE. It came with enough to run both full length so I figured I would do it. I was also going to ground it to the chassis in the back.

[kevin_l]

I got the kit from DSE. It came with enough to run both full length so I figured I would do it. I was also going to ground it to the chassis in the back.

I have this kit coming as well, and was planning on running both positive and negative the full length. Being a uni body car I figured it was best, I am very weak in electrical knowledge, can anyone chime in on the matter. Is this normal practice or a waste of cable. Like cywlie said the kit comes with enough cable to do this. So no extra money is spent. Interested to hear what everyone else does too. thanks

[barrrf]

A shorter ground is a happy ground. It is best practice to make the grounds as short as you can.

[RdHuggr68]

I have this kit coming as well, and was planning on running both positive and negative the full length. Being a uni body car I figured it was best, I am very weak in electrical knowledge, can anyone chime in on the matter. Is this normal practice or a waste of cable. Like cywlie said the kit comes with enough cable to do this. So no extra money is spent. Interested to hear what everyone else does too. thanks

Check out madelectical.com it has a lot of great wiring tips and electrical products for your build. Good luck

[randy]

Im going to buy the DSE kit and run both wires to the firewall, I will also ground the battery in the back of the car too, run a cable from the front subframe to firewall, cable from radiator to subframe, engine to subframe, and that should be good

[Vince@Meanstreets]

A shorter ground is a happy ground. It is best practice to make the grounds as short as you can.

Yep and multiple points too.

Could have cut that ground wire up and made a bunch of 1" gound straps. Don't forget the trans cross member to transmission too.

[kevin_l]

Just received my PSI harness and reading through the manual it states, a ground directly from the battery to the motor is required. And Motor to chassis. So if I just drop a short ground from the battery to the chassis, I won't have a way to supply a second ground from battery to block. I haven't started running wire in my car yet so I would like to do this right the first time. And like I said before I have enough ground cable to run the length of the car supplied with the dse kit.

[gray86hatch]

I always run a ground from the battery to the block, Battery to frame and block to frame.

Ground the engine in at least 3 spots.

Never had issues.

Tim

[frankv11]

This will answer all you questions and more
http://www.w8ji.com/battery_wiring.htm

[SlowProgress]

There are so many ways to do this. I ran fine stranded welding cable from the trunk where I had the battery and shutoff, just one cable and then grounded to the body to save running more than one cable the whole length of the car. I like the welding cable because it has good insulation and bends very easily. I ran the cable and drilled a hole as shown in the sketch

http://i.imgur.com/jXrWY5Bl.jpg

and here is the actual hole but the car is apart now

http://i.imgur.com/qrL8DJHl.jpg.

The cable runs through a big fat grommet into, and out of the rocker and there is a p-clamp to support the cable just before the grommet at both ends. I also split some plastic irrigation hose and covered the cable inside the rocker to prevent chaffing where it is hidden. Here is where it comes out the front of the rocker.

http://i.imgur.com/jRGuPabl.jpg

I like this because the cable takes an easy turn and is right there where the starter is (at least with the big block).
I plan to add a large fuse in the trunk this time in addition to the shutoff.

As Greg mentioned above any movement could potentially cause wear, so make sure nothing can move and avoid running the cables over sharp corners. If a large cable shorts out make sure it is protected by a fuse that will blow before too much damage is done.