How To Relocate Battery To Boot.

[blackflash]

that looks very neat, and dosent look too hard!!!!

[hawlass]

Hey bigkeels, did you have some cable left over?, I have measured a few times but I can only see it needing a bit over 5 meters.Going to do this, and its $20 per meter for welding cable, so just want to be sure. Cheers.

[riptide]

I think it only takes 2 1/2 to 3 meters to get from the boot to the starter motor which is how mines done by a professional and works perfectly fine.

[Bigkeels]

Yeh I had probably a meter left over. Just bought more to be safe, better to have to much than not enough.

[jayjaybrid]

thnx 4 making the thread very handy knowledge for future ideas

[P_BA_XR6]

if u can see my photo I put terminal for my positive on my air box so I had somewhere to jump start the car if I need to at the front of my car because my battery is under my tray

Edited 07/12/11 07:47 AM by P_BA_XR6

[P_BA_XR6]

if u can see my photo I put terminal for my positive on my air box so I had somewhere to jump start the car if I need to at the front of my car because my battery is under my tray

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u see what I mean on this page

http://www.timskelton.com/lightning/race_prep/weight/battery_relocate.htm

[MeanstreakJR]

Ok I thought I would write a "how to" on relocating your battery to the boot, I did a lot of searching before I did mine, but there wasn't really that much information available and I still wasn't 100% sure on the best place to run the cable and how to connect it all up.

I have now done it all and its works perfect! No stereo whine, no trouble starting the car and it came up really neat. Most of the time this mod is needed when you are going to use a 4'' intake and air box.

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What you need.

• Battery box (I used "small" sized box)
  
• 7m of 2B&S cable
  
• 7m of split conduit (optional)
  
• 250mm pre-made earth lead (optional)
  
• Positive battery terminal (standard)
  
• 2 x "fasty" straps (optional)
  
• Bolts, nuts and washers for mounting box
  
• 10mm insulated terminal stud
  
• Spade lugs for terminations
  
• Heatshrink
  
• Cable ties
  
• Drill
  
• Stanley knife
  
• Socket set
  
• Screw
  
• 6 pack of beers
  

_________________________________________________

Ok so know you have all the parts you need, park the car where its easy to access with the door wide open.

Step 1

Running the cable: I ran my cable inside the cabin, I figured it will be protected from anything under the car and I didn't want to take the chance of it getting hot or squashed by anything under the car.

Pull the base of the rear seat out by pushing the front of the base back towards the boot on each side, it should unclip and pull out.

From there I ran the cable down the drivers side of the car. Undo both the kick panels front and back and removal all the plastic panels down the side of the seat. Remove the panel that goes up the middle pillar where the seat belt is and also the bottom half of it. I didn't have a torx bit big enough to undo the seat belt bolt at the bottom, but you can just feed the belt through the panels to give yourself enough room to work. Remove the front kick panel under the fuse box to the right of the accelerator, this one is held on by the seat belt bolt. Once you have all the panels off or out of the way you can now run the cable in the channel, cable tieing it to the wires already in there.

Jack the side of the car up and remove the front wheel and inner guard. From here you can see a gromit where the main loom goes into the cabin. If you stick your head in the foot well you will see some browny coloured rubber, that's where the wires come in. Cut a small X in the gromit and run the cable through there, once its in the wheel well, cable tie it to the wires running over the well and poke it out and into the engine bay right beside the battery.

Once its in the bay, you can put the inner guard and tyre back on and lower the car back down.

Run the cable back through the channel and into the boot, this is where I crossed mine across to the passenger side.

Step 2

Mounting the box: It is much easier to mount the box on the passenger side of the boot, just sit the box where you want it and mark and drill your holes. The chassis rail is directly under the box, so I put 2 bolts between the rail and spare wheel well and bent up an L shaped bracket for the other side because the rail was directly underneath where I would of put my bolts through.

The key to the installation is to keep you earth leads and short as possible, I cut a tiny groove in the side of my box to allow my earth cable to run almost vertical. Mount the earth cable directly to the floor of the boot, sand back a spot to bare metal and bolt the lead on. (You can just use some of the cable you bought and put a battery terminal and a lug on it if you want)

I cut two little slits either side of the bottom of the box and ran a fasty through it so I could strap the battery down also. The straps that come with the box are sh*thouse. Also put one around the outside to hold the lid on.

Step 3

Termination: Ok, now you have your box in place unbolt the batter from up front and cut off the earth terminal, crimp a lug on the cable and mount it directly to the body, remember to sand of the paint back to metal and bolt it on, I just did it on the lip of the hole my new positive cable came through.

The existing positive cable goes to the fuse box and to the starter motor, cut the battery terminal off and crimp a lug onto both the cables, use heat shrink too. Do the same for the new positive cable as well. Now mount you insulated terminal lug somewhere and bolt all the positive cables to it, I used the standard positive terminal cover to cover the stud. Use some vaseline or battery terminal oxidisation inhibitor on the stud to stop moisture getting in.

Now head back down to the boot and put the battery in the box and strap her down, cut your positive cable to size and put the battery terminal on it. Hook up the battery and see if it starts. Test your lights and radio to see if there is any whine. I also cut some foam and stuffed it down the side of the box in case the strap breaks inside.

So now you have your battery in the boot, its not very hard to do and comes up very neat. All up it cost me about $130 and 3 hours going pretty slow because I'd never taken any of the interior trim apart .

Hope it helps, if you have any questions or anything to add feel free.

Cheers,

Keelan

Hey Keelan,

What Gauge wire did you use? I have an electonic store at my despense as I work at one

Cheers Dylan

[sexual harrassment panda]

dylan, the bigger the better, welding earth leads off 3 phase welders is the go

[daztbo]

Use 2 gauge or bigger I used 0 gauge on mine the bigger the better then u won't get voltage drop over the distance of the cable as it will have less resistance