Battery relocate, how to run the new cables?

[Ian Turgeon]

Ok, Ive got a couple of battery relocations going on. Moving battery under the bed. Just finishing one up and were not getting enough juice to turn the truck over.

So how did you guys run the cables? what gauges, where did you end up hooking the positives and grounds? What did you do with the original cables?

Just want to get an idea of what people have done that has worked, and figure out whats best to do here.

 

[Jimmy]

Re: Battery relocate, how to run the new cables?

Ok, Ive got a couple of battery relocations going on. Moving battery under the bed. Just finishing one up and were not getting enough juice to turn the truck over.

So how did you guys run the cables? what gauges, where did you end up hooking the positives and grounds? What did you do with the original cables?

Just want to get an idea of what people have done that has worked, and figure out whats best to do here.

I ran my factory positive cable to a junction block on the driver side inner fender,then ran cable from the junction block along the inside of the framerail to the battery.The negative I bolted directly to the frame.

 

[Captain Morgan]

mines in the back of the Ty pass side. Ran the negative down to the frame, then I made a few new grounds on the front end, one from the frame to the block and one from the frame to the body. The positive runs down and tucks inside the frame rail for most of the run up the truck. It pops out under the body about a foot behind the stater where it terminates on the big starter lug.

Also on the starter lug is the 10ga wire that cames with the Powermaster alternators, which goes straight to the alternator and a seperate 8ga wire that I have leading up to a Painless Wiring fuse block I have under the hood for other accessories.

Thats about it really. The power cables are all marine grade 1/0 gauge and I also have a 150 amp waffer fuse inline on the positive cable coming out of the battery.

 

[skata]

run the ground from battery to frame.
bolt your original ground to frame up front.
get a BIG positive cable like 1-ott or 2-ott and you can run it to a solenoid like jimmy pictured.
just make sure you use thick wires.

 

[Ian Turgeon]

I cant think of what this is other then not a big enough cable.

Tried:

(leaving original battery wires intact, just mounted to keep them seperate)
positive to starter solenoid
negative to frame (cleaned to metal, bolted in)

tried to start and as soon as the solenoid clicked, lost all power
(sounds like a bad ground to me)

To make sure there wasnt a problem hooking the pos to the starter, we ran it to the original cable end, and secured.

now theres power, and the starter clicks, but it doesnt rotate the motor. (doesnt cut all power like it did before)

Tried adding a temporary ground, block -> frame and the results didnt change.


This all on wires that were used on another syclone that did start. So its somewhat perplexing why this is giving us trouble. Im trying to think of other reasons why the starter wont turn over.

Im going to try hooking the batter back to the original lines soon to make sure its all still working. (the trucks been sitting for about 6 months)

 

[SY2932]

Three items:

1. What is the state of charge on the battery? In the six months that the truck has sat, was there a trickle charger on the battery? A battery will lose roughly one percent of its charge a day if it is not maintained. There many not be enough juice to turn the motor over but just enough to make the solenoid click.

2. I didn't read in your description where the 12 volts that is needed to close the contacts on the solenoid is coming from. That is the infamous "purple wire" on the solenoid that is mounted on the side of the starter BTW. If you are running a remote solenoid setup like Jimmy has, the remote solenoid MUST have 12 volts switched going to it or it WILL NOT work.

3. What is the condition on the ground strap between the starter and the solenoid mounted on the side of it? On my bud's F-150, his had almost completely corroded into causing a problem similar to yours. He could have gotten a new starter from Autozone for $100 plus but opted to spend less than $5 on a ground strap (at my suggestion) so that I could silver solder him a new ground strap. HTH's

 

[Ian Turgeon]

ended up being a connection issue on the starter, adam did the wireing and I probly should have taken care of it.

later he did manage to catch the starter wire on fire, blow the battery terminal out of the battery and leave us stranded downhill a meere 1 1/2 minute from home.

lukily it put itself out and I got it figured out friday evening. Been doing fine since (note to those doing this. Watch the stock starter wire terminal, its kinda redtarded because the terminal can ground out on the starter if its tweaked a little. )

 

[Captain Morgan]

ended up being a connection issue on the starter, adam did the wireing and I probly should have taken care of it.

later he did manage to catch the starter wire on fire, blow the battery terminal out of the battery and leave us stranded downhill a meere 1 1/2 minute from home.

lukily it put itself out and I got it figured out friday evening. Been doing fine since (note to those doing this. Watch the stock starter wire terminal, its kinda redtarded because the terminal can ground out on the starter if its tweaked a little. )

Adam doesnt have any luck with the electrical stuff does he.

(note to self, keep adam away from my truck this year at Nats)

 

[Ian Turgeon]

Yea, I'm afraid I'll be doing any wiring needed on his trucks now.

We ran his much like you did morgan. Took out all the stock battery cables, ran a new ground from the head to the frame. Battery terminates at the starter solenoid. Moved the end of the alternator-to-battery wire to the starter solenoid. And grounded the negative of the battery to the frame. Has worked fine once all the connections were solid and not grounding the positives.

I've got most of my supplies ordered up, I'm using 0 gauge stereo power wire I managed for about 1.60/foot The run from the starter to the kb relocate plate is just under 8 feet, so it shouldnt be too bad with the big cable.

Im going to replace the power distribution block on the firewall with a series of stereo distribution blocks. One that takes the 0 gauge from the battery, and powers out to the starter at 0 gauge. then 4 4 gauge ports on it. 1 will run to the alternator, and anther will go to an accessory power block. The alternator wire that powered the original power dist block will be the source for one of the new power blocks. Keeps only one wire on the starter, the fusable links still work as they should, and allows me to tap for more power in a well powered, organized and easy location.


general info about the battery wires:

battery positive: 3 wires, 1 goes from battery to the alternator (mid sized wire), and the larger goes to the starter solenoid. the smallest (which goes forward through the radiator support (has a single wire weather pak on it) powers the abs box.

battery negative: 3 wires, big one goes to the back of the head on the pasanger side. the other two go toward the radiator support. One grounds to the rad support right there (doesnt go far), and the other follows the abs power wire accross the under side of the rad support to ground the abs box.

The power distribution block on the firewall gets its power from a fusable-link protected wire off the alternator. that power block then feeds power to the fuse box for all the accessories and stuff (2 wires on one connector). And it also feeds power to the under hood light.

Theres another wire coming off the alternator that has an in line blade type fuse that powers the intercooler pump. I believe there is another fusable link wire coming off the alternator that powers the lighting, although im not sure about that off the top of my head.

Hope that helps anyone whos trying to figure power/charging out.

 

[0966Sy]

Ian, You wouldnt happen to have any pictures taken of the KB battery relocate would you? I have mine just above the KB in the bed, but would like to move under the bed. Did you get the relocation system from KB? How much did that run?

I ran my cables along the frame. Negative off the block, positive off the starter.

Good detailed post

 

[Ian Turgeon]

I had the kb kit copied and modified. my version isnt perfect, but it better then the kb imo.

ill get a pic of my copy if i can remember to do so.

 

[tyndago]

Remember Negative terminal is as important as the Positive terminal.


Depends on what theory you subscribe to - but some say electricity flows from negative to positive.


Stupid Dodge truck - someone grounded the battery on the core support. The thing was hard as hell to crank.... replaced the battery , put a jump starter on it.....

After the 2nd battery , I realized the ground was crappy. Put a jumper cable between the motor and the negative terminal and it cranked right up....

 

[Ian Turgeon]

I hear ya sean, It seems like a lot of people are having sucess grounding battery to frame and frame to engine block. First hand - Its been working great for adam so far, so thats what I'm recommending at this point. May save some $$ on wire, depending on what kind of terminals you decide to use for grounding (some high $$ stuff is in the $15+ range)

 

[tyndago]

The frame is a big piece of conductive metal.

In order to crank the starter needs to be grounded well.


You see that "Hyper Ground " stuff they sell for import cars ?

Multiple grounds to link stuff together on the motor ?

They actually work. As I said - power runs negative to positive according to some theories . So most cars can use a bit of an upgrade on positive and negative side.

 

[0966Sy]

Ian, any picture's taken yet? I'd like to get an idea of where the KB kit mounts so i can mock one up myself.

 

[lavaman]

FWIW, I had relocated my Buick's battery to trunk and tried the ground to frame and frame to block...car barely cranked over. Someone suggested running the biggest dia. ground possible straight to the block. Ran a 1 ott(0 gauge?) from neg. terminal straight to block and car cranked/started instantly like it was never moved. If I remember correctly, using a digital Radio Shack meter it ended up being only a .1V drop...