battery ground strap replacement

Electrical mods for the hi-end modder. Such as wiring harness hacks, swaps, etc...

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Calimus
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battery ground strap replacement

Post by Calimus »

The first thing I do with any A1 car that I'll be doing electrical work to is to beef-up the batter ground strap.

I think the factory ground wire is something like 5 or 6 guage and is bare. This means thats it's not very big and subject to all the elements of the engine bay. This includes rain, heat, battery acid, oil, engine cleaning chems and the sort. Best thing I've found is to go to your local Auto parts store and find a 3 foot length of 2 guage batter terminal cable. Most of these now come wrapped in a thick clear plastic to shield it from the elements.

If you trace the factor cable from the batter you will find that it attaches to the body right below the fuel distributor box. Cut the old cable away just above where it connects to the body. Reason for this is that that cable doesn't stop there. It then goes to a bolt that holds the tranny to the block but it's on the backside of the engine were most oil leaks occure. We want to leave that as another ground.

Now the new cable has two ends. One that attaches to the battery and one that is supposed to attache to the engine. The end that attaches to the end is usually flat with a hold pre-drilled. You will want to widen that hole enough so that you can attach it to one of the tranny bolts on the front side of the tranny. So from here I think you know what you have to do.

This mod will seriously increase the ammount of stable ground that you have out in the engine bay. It can also solve a host of small electrical issues that you may have such as dim headlights, guage lights and the sort.

I also reccomend a pair of 8 guage leads coming from the negative terminal on the battery and going to the body. This helps tie in the factory ground wire we left going from the body to the engine.
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Post by Blades »

'92 White Cabby 1.8 8v Digifant.
'92 Tornado Red Golf Diesel (1.9TD AAZ Intercooled soon)
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Calimus
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Post by Calimus »

Pretty much like that, but I'm using larger cable then that. Well, from his photo's it appears as though I'm using larger cable, I'll take some pics just for comparison.
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Post by 1lowcab »

back from the dead..
anyway, post some pics of your grounds cal. i need info and insight. since i have everything tore down so far on the cab i might as well beef up all the grounds.
lets see what everyone has done.
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Calimus
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Location: Cartersville, Ga

Post by Calimus »

I can have those up tomorrow (monday) Been a long day and I'm prett beat.
16' Challenger ScatPack
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
1lowcab
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Post by 1lowcab »

thats cool.
so you only changed out the main gound cable from the battery?
i was thinking about doing all the little grounds also, going to a bigger gauge wire with them.
did you notice any difference after you changed them?
If you can't beat them, drop the top and pimp by 'em!

85 Mercedes 500SEL grey market euro
Bunch of GM crap
In need of a VW lol
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