Relocating the battery to the trunk, cleaning up the engine bay, don’t need criticism on that.
did my research, spent tons of time reading VegaS10’s crx wire tuck (close enough to DA chassis) and countless other articles on wire tucks and battery relocations. heres my question(s). He chooses to individually ground out the Starter, Alternator and then a third engine ground to the firewall, and then Runs a wire from the starter , and seperate wire from the fuse box, to a distribution block thru a fuse holder and to the battery. However a few other posts i have read, people use a triple wire distribution block and run the Starter, Alternator, and Fuse Box wire to the block, then thru fuse holder to the battery. i plan to run all new wires, 2 gauge and 8 gauge. If anyone has their own $0.02 what has worked what hasnt please id like the input.
In theory, you want the fuse of the “system” as close to the power source as possible. With that being said, I wouldn’t see a problem having your block "downstream of your distribution block…
yeah i plan to keep the fuse holder withing like 3-4 inches from my battery, most likely housed in the battery box as well, i just didnt know if anyone who has thrown the battery in the back has used for a distribution block, someone put their alt/starter/and fuse power wire into the block, and this other write up only did the starter and fuse power wire.
The possibilities of how to run your starting/charging wires is almost limitless, so really it comes down to convenience IMO. When my battery was in the trunk:
battery to circuit breaker
breaker to dist block to amplifiers
breaker to alternator (heavy gauge long wire that ran from trunk to engine bay and used a ring terminal to connect to the alternator)
alternator to under hood fuse box (my fuse box is in the stock location) with a ring terminal at each end to connect to alternator and fuse box terminals.
the starter was wired directly to the wire which runs from the alt to fuse box, I just created a T junction and ran a short length of wire from the alt/fuse box wire directly to the starter
battery grounded to chassis in trunk
Engine grounded to frame via transmission (basically exactly like the stock ground)
Valve cover grounded to chassis similar to the stock ground
The starter does not need its own ground, its grounded by being bolted to the eng/trans
The alternator does not need its own ground, its grounded by being bolted to the engine
That’s one of the 3 or 4 different configurations I’ve had in my car, all have worked equally well, you have a lot of options.
Thanks so much, when I read the thread for a full wire tuck on a b16 crx the owner used 4GA wire for the battery to dist block, and 8GA running from dist block to fuse box and starter, seems awful small ??? But he said everything worked fine and there were no issues, I’d be kind of scared Running 4GA wire like that? 2 seems fine to me, then maybe 8/4 for the starter and fuse box?
The stock wiring isn’t even 8ga I don’t think, so I think it’d be fine. 4ga works for trunk to engine bay but I did mine larger, I forget what size it was. I’m sure you can easily find the formulas to determine wire size based on current draw.
Also, I suggest using welding cable instead of car audio power cable. The welding cable is much much cheaper, is well insulated and often more flexible than the audio stuff unless you get the high quality stuff. You can get the welding cable from any welding supply store, and they even have really large gauge stuff if you need it.
I don’t think they do, but you could always try. I’m sure you can find something by googling. Search welding supply or terms related to cylinders of gasses, like oxygen, nitrogen…etc. not sure if its nationwide or not, but around here the common place is called Airgas.
That price looks to be per foot, and that is NOT 4 gauge, that is 4/0 which is much much larger. Just go in to the store and buy the length you need, plus it’s nice to see stuff before you buy. I think this is more along the lines of what you’d need: http://www.airgas.com/browse/productDetail.aspx?Category=5&product=RAD64003501
When I was buying this stuff years and years ago it was a lot cheaper than audio stuff, looks like there are audio cables on ebay for similar or cheaper than that welding cable though. I’d definitely shop around if I were you. The stuff on Airgas’s website might be top of the line stuff, I’m not sure, they might have cheaper. And the stuff on ebay is gonna be the cheap of the cheap, some of which is lame.
