Am doing a battery relocation for the 2nd time. This time only running 1 cable(+) from the rear. Grounding to the frame and the bed at battery location. Question.... does the negative cable (-), where I disconnected from the original battery location, need to be regrounded to the frame and motor or is it already totally grounded through the original harness? I just connected it to a cable terminal and am using it as a ground for a nitrous set up. I'm thinkin it's already grounded properly...???
Electrical Masters Only, Please
- Thread starter smilinjack
- Start date
Unless you want random electrical problems and poor starting you need to have a large gauge cable running from the engine to the frame somewhere. There may be one from the factory, there may not be. I would just run a negative cable from the battery to the engine and be done with it, but I've had the displeasure of working on many cars with battery relocations and numerous electrical problems caused because they cables and/or connections weren't up to the job. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people spends hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on pidly electrical problems one at a time when a single decent cable would have fixed everthing all at once for a lot less total investment.
Thanks. Appreciate the response. I was actually going to run that cable from the original neg. battery connection to the frame. same thing or no?
As long as you have a good ground at the frame it wont be an issue. Ground cable should always be as short as possible.
That will be fine.
You definitely want any electrical conductor to be as short as possible, but you also want as few connections as possible. My experience has been that a single large cable with one connection on each end performs better than two short cables with four connections passing current through the body/frame. On a unibody car I would definitely go cable from battery to engine. With a real frame to bolt the cables to I would say it's an electrical toss up decided by the lower cost of two short cables instead of one 10-12 footer.
thanks guys. didn't realize the ground needed to be short. very helpful. sure is nice to have a Lightning site to get specific answers to our questions and be able to share info. :rolling:
run stock connections to the battery just run a larger guage if your extending the main cables.
longer cable is more resistance hence more amperage draw on all of your curcuits....
the larger cable will compensate by being less resistance and compensating for the longer length. Keep it as OEM as humanly possible to save you any electrical headache later on bro.
longer cable is more resistance hence more amperage draw on all of your curcuits....
the larger cable will compensate by being less resistance and compensating for the longer length. Keep it as OEM as humanly possible to save you any electrical headache later on bro.
I agree
The natural resistance of the wire will cause a "voltage drop" over a certain distance. Voltage is what pushes the current into each load/device. Less voltage means less current feed which equals less overall power. This is also what causes the insulation to melt off the wire. Current and resistance is what makes heat. Also every connection you make to the circuit adds to the total resistance of the circuit. Soldering has the less resistance of any connection setup but that would hard to do with battery cables. Play with calculator below and you can see the voltage drop.
Voltage Drop Calculator
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