RA28 Battery in boot?

**frag_dog** · 10-09-2008, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by thomasbl

I ran my 28 battery inside the cabin.

There is a hole in the firewall, with a perfect sized grommet already attached down near the chassis rail on mine. Its below the one you are using for your wiring.

I connected the earth to part of the frame, near the battery to save length of cable running through the car and i didn't see that it was nessecary.

My 1G works fine like this. I did attach a better earth cable from engine and gearbox to chassis though.

I included a circuit braker in case the cable got pinched in an accident.

I'll take a look for that tonight.

I know it isn't 'nessary' to run a negitive up to the engine, but I'm rewiring the whole car and I want to get it all right the first time.

I've already bought 2 lengths of 1 Guage wire to run the length of the car. The engine has 4 decent sized earth straps on it, connected to the chassie rails. I'm going to connect the earth to the block, and to the chassie up the back.

Next question now. I want to have a fully sealed box and run a breather pipe. I have one of the marine 'clam shell' ones, but I want a air tight one. Does anyone know of one?

**MWP** · 10-09-2008, 06:07 PM

I looked for a long time trying to find a fully sealed box.
The only ones i did find are made by Moroso and are very expensive

And yes, i did try marine shops too.

So, i built one (took me friggin ages)

**Smokey228** · 10-09-2008, 06:33 PM

Why do you want it to be completely seeled?

Cheers,
Jase

**frag_dog** · 10-09-2008, 08:22 PM

Thanks MWP. What you have is exactly what I want to end up with. Now its just a matter of getting one made...

Originally Posted by Smokey228

Why do you want it to be completely seeled?

Cheers,
Jase

Because before I tore the wiring out, I had a Marine on in there (previous owner) and it looked like it over flowed. In doing so its rusted the crap out of the false floor pannel. I'd rather go sealed box the first time and save stuffing around with it later on when it rusts into the fuel tank....

**o_man_ra23** · 10-09-2008, 10:30 PM

Current - are we talking starter cranking amps, or normal running full load?? Normal running full load I wouldn't expect anyone to pull more than 80 amps (unless you have a fully hektik sound system or massif fuk off floodlights), that's will high beams on, EFI running, 2 fuel pumps, wipers going, normal sized stereo (single 10-12" sub) etc etc.

Cranking, well you need to know the size of your starter. Most of the ones I see in Tojos are .8 to 1kW. At 12VDC this is 66-83A, so a 250A fuse should happily take it day in day out. As mentioned, the fuse is there for a catastrophic failure, and minor failures are taken care of in the fuse box. What a lot of people don't realise is that the fuse is there to protect the cable, not the piece of equipment it is attached to. The reason you need to protect the cable is because they get really hot when you have too much current, and can cause a fire. Large amounts of insulation in low voltage DC systems are not necessary unless you want abbrasion resistance. It is a nice to have, but not necessary.

**Toy77** · 11-09-2008, 07:19 AM

Heya jase,

Completely sealed is what is required for registration if it is in the passenger compartment. The battery releases gasses that need to go somewhere - that is the reason for the law - the seriousness of the gas is a matter for disscusion, but that the rules. as Rod said, often no one cares - its up to you.

There are a number of options though - the externally venting battery is a very easy one (i described this battery earlier) which can be used in the marine boxes. You can use a gel cell battery, like Rod, these are great batteries, but dearer, and they dont vent gasses.

Another option to making a fully sealed box is to use the base of the marine box, and make a new lid that seals. i made a flat aluminuim lid, with folded edges. a bit of rubber edging over the plastic top edge of the bottom - clamp it down - sealed box.

Cheers
Stew