Relocate your Battery!  By Fred Bingham

Here are the things you will need to relocate your battery to the rear of your car. This is done to lighten the front of your car, as well as to place some weight over the rear axle, to help traction.

Moroso makes the only NHRA legal plastic box, and its a good unit. All you really need is the box (about $100, comes with all mounting hardware), battery disconnect switch (about $20 for summit one), 40ft of 0ga welding cable ($1 ft here in Houston), 20ft of 2ga welding cable ($.75 ft here) and 3 lugs for the 0ga cable, and 1 for the 2ga. Welding cable is MUCH easier to work with, as its much more pliable, yet, it conducts elec. better, b/c it has more strands of wire.

Cut the 40ft length of wire into two lengths of 20ft, if not already done so. 20ft allows a little extra length that might come in handy, depending on how you route it.

Mount the battery using the instructions that come with the Moroso kit. Run a short piece of cable from the + terminal on the battery to the d/c switch, where you chose to mount it. Use a $.99 batt terminal from any local auto parts store.  Connect the lug on the other end of the cable that attaches to the back of the disconnect switch. Then, attach a lug to the end of the remaining piece of the first 20ft length, and run the cable from the other terminal on the back of the switch to the front of the car. Connect the 0ga lug to the end of the cable and attach it to the starter solenoid where the original + cable went from the battery.

Next, attach another batt terminal thing to the end of the other 20ft length of 0ga and attach it to the - side of batt. Run the cable up to the front of the car, to the original grounding point on the timing cover. Attach the last lug and connect it to the cover, where the old ground wire went from the batt. Lastly, you will see when you remove the stock - cable, there is a small wire thats bolted to the inside of the fender wall. Cut this wire, and, at the back of the car, attach a small (no smaller than 8 ga) wire to the - terminal and run it to the floor, side, whereever that it will be grounded.

You should now be done with the battery relocation. Now, to make the relocation NHRA legal, and, to make the disconnect switch ALWAYS cut the car off, even when its running, you need to run the 2ga cable from the disconnect switch to the alternator.

Attach a lug to one side of the 2ga cable, and attach it to the disconnect switch, on the terminal that has the length of 0ga that went to the battery. Run this line to the front of the car, and to the alternator. At the alternator, you will find two black wires, that go back into loom/elec tape. Pull this loom/tape back till the two black lengths join to become one (about 6 inches back in the loom). At this point, cut the wire, after it has become one wire, and tape the end of the cut wire that goes to the car, not to the alt. Then, solder the end of the 2ga cable to the piece of wire that is coming from the alternator. Make sure to solder it correctly, and use heat shrink to protect it.

If you have done the procedure correctly, the car should now run when the switch is in the ON position, and, when the switch is flipped off, the car should die. All power should be cut.

There have been many many discussions on this subject, but, I have NEVER had problems due to relocation of battery by running the cables in the manner in which I described. I have done it on two cars now, and know others that have the same method of relocation and have no probs. Some run the ground only to the rear of the car, but I have heard of problems in doing it this way. Others, like myself, run it to the front original point. Some also relocate the starter solenoid to the rear of the car, but, its really not imperative. Just a matter of preference.

Back
2001© SuperStallions Of The Net!  All Rights Reserved.