Battery Relocation

OB · Post by OB » Sun Jul 01, 2007 5:40 am

Not sure exactly where this thread belongs (electrical section anyone?).

Ok so ive been doing some research regarding battery relocation and ive come up with a decently priced kit. Electronics isnt my field of specialty, so I have a few simple questions. The main one is this: how do I go about attaching the new cable(s) to the existing ones properly? Is 2g wire of sufficient size? Can I use the thin sheetmetal in the trunk as my new main ground from the neg battery terminal? Do I need to route a power AND ground wire to the trunk or just a power? Thanks in advance!

60trim · Post by **60trim** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 10:54 am

I relocated mine when I did my tubo set up due to the lack of room under my hood. 2 gauge is plenty. I went to a local audio shop and bought a positive power block that had different ports for different electronics. Then for the ground, I went and grounded it the the actual frame itself by going through the gromet in the trunk floor. I ran the positive wire inside the car for safety purposes. Now also know that if you do relocate and decide you want to race at the track i.e. drag, you'll need to install a kill switch per NHRA drag racing rules. I got black flagged for this when I went for inspection. Personally the kill switch and a fire jacket is all thats stoping me from getting times with my new set up. I'll take some pics for ya Derek.

OB · Post by OB » Sun Jul 01, 2007 4:46 pm

Thanks for the info! So the powerblock just allows you to easily hook up mulitple accessories and stuff? What is the procedure for hooking the power block up to everything? Good idea with the ground, ill look into that as well. Does the kill switch have to be on the exterior? I thought about getting one but I might have to wait till I can afford one.

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 4:48 pm

OB wrote:Does the kill switch have to be on the exterior?

thats something i'd like to know as well.

fixitmattman · Post by **fixitmattman** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 5:02 pm

For most normal installations you don't need the kill switch on the exterior. Some racing series require the kill switch to be mounted in a specific location on the vehicle and be able to be operated from outside, so if you plan to go racing look into the rules.

BlackRoseRacing · Post by **BlackRoseRacing** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:58 am

^^^
Thats if they even bother to look to see if your battery is relocated, remember we drive neons, why would we relocate a battery

fixitmattman · Post by **fixitmattman** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:58 pm

For most run what you brung type events nobody's car really gets inspected. For serious racing events/series, ALL cars are inspected and must pass inspection before being allowed on the track. Although if you're in one of these series you're probably already thoroughly familiar with the rule book and inspection criteria.

60trim · Post by **60trim** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:29 am

here are those pics I told you I'd take. Sorry it took so long.
so here it is in the trunk held down by two 13 inch bolts and a block of wood to absorb any impacts.

This is a pic of the underside where I grounded it.

Here is the engine bay mounted splitter I was speaker of that I picked up at my local audio shop.

Here are some internal cabin readings
From my APEXI turbo timer

and from my passport 8500 plugged into my cig lighter

Any other questions, post up.

Ryanm07 · Post by **Ryanm07** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:22 am

I did it to my car to make room for my custom intake for my turbo. I expected problems just like with everything else. But it was actually really easy. I know it was explained before but heres the simple run down:

1) Bolt box down in your trunk where you want it.
2) take out battery and tray from engine bay.
3) Run 1 cable from the trunk to the front under all the carpeting, there are already wires there just run with them then go through the existing hole in the firewall.
4) cut off old terminals.
5) ground out stock negative wire to a good ground of your choice in the engine bay.
6) strip wire off of your new cable, and the stock one. Twist, solder, tape. Dont try to use some kind of connectors, your new cable should be twice the size of your stock one so just do a good solder job on it and you will be fine.
7) put a hole in the bottom of the trunk next to your battery box, and run a cable through it and ground it out to the frame underneath for your new battery ground.

Put battery ends on cables.
9) Put new battery in, I highly reccommed an optima red top, yellow if you want a deep cycle. Even though the trunk is ventilated pretty well the battery is stil going to be moving around a lot if you have the slightest bit of extra room in the box. i had 1/2 inch of play on either side and my month old battery went bad very quickly with the normal battery. I switched to a red top, and used an folded up beer case to fill the extra room and I havent had any problems.

thats my quick non-detailed run down on how I did it, If i missed anything i'm sorry. If anyone is planning on doing it and has quesitons feel free to PM me. I found all the info I needed on this site. Oh btw, dont buy a kit. Goto advance and get: coated terminals (2.98), a battery box (~$15), four cable lugs (~$5), and about 15-20 feet of their 2 gauge cut to length cable (its always good to have extra)(~$2/foot), and bolts to bolt the box down and stuff if you dont have them already. It will come out half the price of one of those kits you'll find, and you wont have useless crap left over.

OB · Post by OB » Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:18 am

I found a decently priced kit by summit for like 70 bucks that includes a nice box, all the wires, connectors, and a solid hold-down as well. Seems like the easier way to go, especially seeing as how I dont have an audio store anywhere nearby.

I'd prefer to avoid having to solder since I dont own my own iron/gun. I could get one but as I said before, I dont trust myself with electronics just yet. I dont wanna risk doing it incorrectly. Can't I just use some sort of crimped connectors and just bolt them together?

FTWNeon · Post by **FTWNeon** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:17 am

OB wrote: Can't I just use some sort of crimped connectors and just bolt them together?

Thats what I did and everything has been working fine.

OB · Post by OB » Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:51 am

^can you snap me a few pics when you get a minute? Id like to keep this as reversable as possible without having to splice/solder/cut anything! thanks guys

FTWNeon · Post by **FTWNeon** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:56 am

I'll try and get some for ya this weekend. What I did is got some side post battery terminals and hooked those up to the stock terminals adn then hooked the posts to wire and ran the wire. Wraped the whole thing in electrail tape then thats it. didn't cut anything and completely reservable.

It's early adn i can't type

OB · Post by OB » Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:26 pm

Ok sounds good thank you