Battery Relocation Help Please

[newbien]

Gday,

Im currently Building up a 4A powered TE72 for Tarmac Rally and have come to the stage of needing to relocate my battery for several reasons...

Q1. Is there an EASY way to do it? Bolt in kit, something that a not so electrical guy can do?

or...

Q2. Is there a mob in Adelaide that will come to my joint to setup the relocation wiring etc?


Basically, i kinda suck at wiring so i would prefer if there is a group/company/forum member that can come to my house and do it, or if there is a kit out there that will make it possible for someone who sucks at electrics to be able to do it...

As always, Any and all help appreciated..

Cheers, Chris

[ae95]

much cheaper to do it yourself
4wd shops will have a kit or you could go to an auto sparky and get them to do it for you

unless you got a fully sealed battery you are required by law to vent the battery to the outside of the car.

easiest way to do it is run a cable from your +ve terminal to your starter motor +ve and then a thicker gauge wire from there to your battery (gauge required depends on length ie. voltage drop)

[20valve69corona]

Try this site. It may help you.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/lachlan/tech/bat_v.html

Good Luck

Will

[TooF]

there waqs a really good thread here on doing a step by step for a relocation on a st185 celica, obivosuly not quite the same but from memory had enough detail you should be able to nut the rest out.

[20valve69corona]

there was a really good thread here on doing a step by step for a relocation on a st185 celica, obivosuly not quite the same but from memory had enough detail you should be able to nut the rest out.

I think this is the thread you were speaking about.

http://forums.toymods.org.au/index.p...t=0#msg_560667

This is a good write up.

[LeeRoy]

Also have a look at this: http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34846

If you can get one of those then just mount it in the engine bay and run a battery cable to your starter which then has a wire to join it to the positive post where your batter used to be.

The biggest problem with moving the battery to the boot is that the wiring in the engine bay is designed to mount to a battery there to it ideally needs to be secured and covered or at least covered. It also sucks because the wiring is not designed to be moved so it mounts to the starter nor is it long enough - besides the fact that on the side of a hot engine is not an ideal place for fusible links and the like.

In your case the insulated posts in the link i provided are the perfect solution.

It is also advisable from what i have heard to run a negative cable back to the front of the car also.

[takai]

If you are really stuck im sure one of the adelaide guys could help you out.

What area are you in?

[Draven]

nb: depending on the rules of your state, they might require you to vent the battery to atmo even if it is a dry cell/sealed (that is the case in nsw).

[takai]

nb: depending on the rules of your state, they might require you to vent the battery to atmo even if it is a dry cell/sealed (that is the case in nsw).

Not the case in ACT or SA

[Draven]

lucky bastards

[newbien]

Im located in Aberfoyle Park...

I will look into the options that have been laid out here, but like i said, im not exactly what your would call electrically skilled...

ideally i would like to only have to just run a power cable straight to the engine bay, that way i dont need to change the loom again...

ill post up what i come across

[Sigmeister]

How about this. It's pretty simple...
Just remove the terminals and replace them with distribution blocks. Plug all the existing wires into that and then run some nice thick cable (0 Gauge or 55mm^2 welding flex) to the battery in the boot.
Something like this:

[Draven]

newbien: you don't need to be super electrically talented. you just make sure all the wires going into one terminal now go into a dist block (as seen above), then run 1 fat cable from that to the boot, onto the same battery terminal as it originally went to. Up here we have a shop called "all about 12 volts", where you can just tell them what you want and they'll cut it up for you, crimp on a terminal to one end, and give you the appropriate distribution block. then all you need to do is plug stuff in to the dist block

[Talasas]

It's not too difficult to do, the hard part for me was trying to work out a fuse system that I found trustworthy and reliable. In the end I chose a 300 Amp Audiopipe fuse and bought a nice fuse holder from Ryda.com for it. Some say the Jaycar 120 Amp safety switch may be enough. I bought some massive cable from Jaycar, I think it's 0-gauge. I also bought some 4 gauge wire as a return, I don't like the idea of the chassis being the only return. I'm also using a sealed battery which has a vent tube I'll simply run outside.

I haven't set it all up yet as the boot compartment isn't quite finished, but it should all be straightforward. I've yet to find a ceramic dist block like JP mentioned on another forum though.

[bobob]

With a bit of planning as you are doing, a bit of searching and a bit of advice you will be able to do this job well.

You really only need 4 things:

- A new fuse capable of large current for near your battery.
- A large cable to run through the cabin.
- A distribution block to split the power the required devices.
- Appropriate earths.

You will need to know what sort of fuse would be appropriate for your install?

I run a big cable from the battery, through a 100A circuit breaker to a distribution block in the engine bay, similar to the link below:

You can get fancy ones like this with the Volt readout, but similar will do the trick, you will most likely need more outputs, I cant find a link to one now.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SZ2076

(This one only has two outputs and may not be suitable, the volt readout is not needed.)

I thought that the fuse near the battery was really important to get right, I thought the only thing I am changing electrically is that I am now running a big wire through the cabin that carries current. These car batteries are strong enough to weld things together, I did not want a short circuit causing damage.

Some distribution blocks also accept fuses, then just fuse each output appropriately for the device you are feeding power to, if it has a 30A fuse, run a 30 fuse for the device.

I have not blown the 100A, I have air con and stereo including amplifier running off this feed, I wonder if 300A is excessive? Maybe someone else can answer that with some maths that I am not going to do now as I think my setup works OK.

Find an electrical diagram for your car and determine what fuse is currently on the starter circuit, this would most likely be the highest rating fuse you will need.

This path wont look tidy, if you think it through it might work out for you.

Battery > short big cable > fuse (circuit breaker) > Big cable through the cabin > through firewall (through a rubber donuty grommet thing) > to distribution block > fuse each run from there appropriately > (starter, use heavy cable for this, amp for stereo, radio, existing equipment (your factory equipment might have a black box attached to the positive post of the battery, need to include that)

Then you need to consider you earths, the battery at the rear will need to be earthed, in a similar manner how it is now. Some people earth to chassis in the rear, some people run a cable to the front to meet the existing earth cable's position. Both work, just use the same size cable as you did for the positive run, (as big as you can get).

Good luck.