^ save some weight for that as well. I could get away with less of a higher quality wire (and am I not finding the right OFC wire?....it is only like 1.50/ft)

1.50 a foot is a deal. Is it welding wire or audio wire? I have audio wire because it is more flexible.

its audio but I cant find any that is "industrial". so far I think I am going to stick with the radaflex in 2g.

ground the battery in the truck on the shock tower and then ground to the cross-member in the engine bay? saves $ and weight :)

Dude have you seen the welding cable that Hoss-05 got that I am using? It is super flexible and the copper strands are like hairs. Plus it is double shielded, chemical resistant, etc. It is not light though.

/\ that's sweet. I was only going by what I remembered from back in the day and have since seen many different welding cables that are great. The weight is the downside.

Short grounds are always best. I have a short ground to the shock tower, then a ground running back to the front, as well as a ground running from the engine to the front brace. Overkill? maybe, added weight? not really, that extra pound or two of wire on the passenger side is peanuts against the idiot behind the wheel :evil_laug

I wasn't saying I was going with the OFC cable 9k :) I am doing the cable yard stuff...just still deciding on what to go with (single wire vs double wire?)

If I have to ground the battery in the truck I might as well save $ and make 1 positive run from the nose to the trunk and then 2 short runs (battery to shock and engine bay "terminal" to chassis)

Oh ok, good. I thought you were going with some pick speaker wire or something, :lol: That double wire stuff is cool as hell.

it is but now I am considering if the ground all hte way back to the engine bay is even necessary!

damn I wonder if I can find some pink HD wire....hmmmmm

I am just going to ground in the trunk man. And I will add extra grounds from the engine to the chassis with that grounding kit copper wire I got.

I relocated my battery to the trunk 8 months ago; here are some notes on my experience:

6 AWG Positive
I used a single 6 gauge fine-strand welding cable from the engine bay to the trunk. It works fine, and the car starts reliably, but the voltage drop across the 6 gauge positive is over 2 volts during cold cranking, which makes the car crank a little slower than usual. Even with a 7 lb battery, the car fires up every time, but if I had to do it again, I would go with 4 gauge.
Attachment 190410

Remote Battery Posts
I wanted a neat, tidy looking place to mount the OEM battery terminals, so I mounted a set of remote battery posts under the hood in the stock battery location. It looks good (imho), but the brass battery posts are very heavy. If I did it again, I'd use hollow posts.
Attachment 190411Attachment 190412

Cable Routing
As many others have done, I drilled a hole behind the windshield washer reservoir and ran the positive battery cable down the passenger side door threshold below the plastic cover. Be very careful drilling through the fire wall, as there is a wiring harness right next to where you want the hole.

Chassis Ground
I grounded the battery to an OEM chassis ground near the rear seat belt mount. I don't have a pic, but it is behind the plastic interior panel adjacent to the rear seat back. This was also done with 6 gauge fine-strand welding cable, but the cable length is very short. The voltage drop from the negative battery terminal to the engine block during cranking is less than 0.2 V.

Fuse
I added a 125A fuse on the positive cable less than 12" from the battery. I wasn't sure if 125A would be enough, but it hasn't blown yet in 8 months of driving.

That's it. This week the battery is coming back out for winter storage. Two years on the Voltphreaks VPH900, and it's still rock solid.

I tried going that route, but had very little success because there is so much crap behind the glove box that i couldn't find a good place to drill :(. Not sure if the S2's layout is a bit different back there. Any chance you could get a pic?

That's exactly how I want to do mine in the engine bay. Did you make that bracket/post setup?

why do you want to keep the posts? in the event you want to sell the car?

I would just rather not hack up the factory positive and negative connectors.

[img]https://funnyfilez.funnypart.com/pictures/FunnyPart-com-no_longer_a_chicken.jpg[\img]

^fail

:lol: Fail indeed. You can't post pics in the DIY forum noob.

damn rules ;)

I don't have any pics, but I used the same location as eXentric suggests in this thread:
https://www.rx8club.com/do-yourself-...p-power-16217/

Nope. Bought it from Jegs: JEGS Performance Products 10314 JEGS Remote Battery Jumper Terminal Mounting Bracket

Several other companies make similar brackets for similar money.

So that looks like where the steering column would be routed in RHD cars... hrmm, i will have to look for that.

Thanks, I just ordered this :)

JEGS Performance Products 10314K JEGS Remote Battery Jumper Terminal Mounting Bracket


Houston, you can have that other bracket I bought if you want it.

There's not much room between the A/C blower and the firewall, plus there is carpet, carpet pad, and the engine wiring harness to deal with. It was a bit nerve-racking, but I think it's the best place to drill the firewall. Just make sure you use a quality grommet and not something which will fall out. Here is the one I used: StreetWires FB4 4-gauge firewall bushing at Crutchfield.com

That's the one I have. I should have mentioned - the battery posts in that kit are larger diameter than OEM. You'll need to stretch your OEM battery terminals a bit to fit.

Thanks for the tip!

I think that is what discouraged me from going that route .... not so much the carpeting and junk, but i didn't want to come through and nail an AC line or blower. when I did this I actually went across behind the console and over to the drivers side through teh firewall grommet. Might as well just leave it there since it hasn't posed any problems.

Cool man thanks!

I am thinking I will cut the wires just to keep it clean but if you have that I may take advantave of it :)

Hate to revive this, but I wanted to post a little update. I took some time yesterday and rerouted my wiring and instead of going through the driver side grommet, i drilled out a hole where the RHD steering column would go as others have suggested. No different than the S1 as far as junk sitting back there goes.

After taking a tiny pilot hole, it was easy to see that there is a solid 2 inches back there to work with. Again, as mentioned, do not go outside of where the RHD steering column would go as there is a harness that sits an inch below there and you dont want to risk hitting that.

I can take some pics if necessary

sweet deal. I ended up routing by the fuel lines :suspect: and up under the abs module.....but I removed my harnesses :)

paimon.soror: Pics, please!

I am having some hard start issues with mine whether it's hot or cold and with different batteries so I will be making some changes this weekend.

I ordered a better grommet so i can protect the hole that I made. It should be here in a few days. I will take pics then :)

your starter? reman or the new updated unit?

Brand new starter and new battery. It didn't start until I did the relocation. I am pretty sure it's the terminal on the power wire. I soldered all the rest but used a fancy terminal on that and I think it sucks. It will be easy to fix.

Not the terminals I sent you I hope. Been using them without issue here.

Yeah that one. The wire seems to want to work it's way out no matter how tight the allen screw is so I will solder in a copper ring terminal. I also did not run a ground from up front all the way to the battery so I will test to see if that is an issue too. I do have it ground in the trunk and extra place sin the engine bay as well.

Hrmm interesting. Have you tried tinning the wire before tightening the screw? I am using the 2awg radaflex and was able to use the adapter on the terminals without issue ... slipped on the adapter .. added some solder to make sure it holds form, then tightened.

Pics

Actually tinning the wire is a good idea, I can try that easily. Thanks. I have no basis for my theory but I think I need to run a ground all the way back to the battery.

make sure you have a good ground from the block to the chassis as well.

go buy the Taylor terminals, they have a threaded compression end that cinches tight after it's tightened down

Taylor Battery Cable Terminal Kits - SummitRacing.com

Thanks man, ordered a pair of those. They are awesome.

Is that you're professional opinion while you sit and wait for your first pair to show up? :yelrotflm

seriously though, I took one apart to redo the length and was pretty convinced it would have to be cut off and replaced just before I finally got it apart and out. That's how good they cinch down.

muy interesante. The only concern that I have is my cold start, but I am not sure if that is due to battery relocation or just ... well ... it being cold out lol. I will grab a clip when i leave work.

Man that radflex cable is nice to work with.

indeedy

mine works great but I will be ording those terminals :)....should have run the ground all the way 9k

Yeah I am going to test the ground theory with the extra 2AWG wire I have like you said but my issues is cold or hot and it was fine before the relocation so it has to be something simple in the setup.

We put two grounds in 9k's trunk also added two super thick nice extra grounds in the engine bay.

do you have a ground from the block to the chassis? I had hard start issues before i did that. Remember our starter's only ground is against the engine block itself ... if the block isn't grounded strong then lots of issues.

I don't, the only one I know of is the factory one that connects to the block near the coolant drain plug. I can do that easily though. The factory one from the LIM to the chassis is there though.