Rob x-7

ths stuff in home depot is automotive wire, its copper.

amd gasoline/vapor resistant or whatever, high temp..all

that good stuff

Baldy

so I got the premade cables that were "for my car," which of course didn't fit. So I went to home depot and got the cable (AWG 4, same as the prefit ones), and the terminals from the auto parts store. But it hasn't been easy by any means thus far. The battery wires were wrapped up with some other wires, which is going to be a serious bitch to wrap back up in the location that it's in, and in the tight space. And I'm going to keep the battery cables separate from this other stuff this time. Additionally, it was quickly approaching freezing last night, and the wire was becoming really difficult to work with.



So today I hope to finish my cables, and start wrapping up the other stuff. That, and the tranny problem. I'm also contemplating replacing the battery-to-alternator cable, but that's going to involve more unwrapping and wrapping of the stuff that's around it.



For the alternator cable, would there be anything wrong with just a short cable, going a direct route from it to the battery, rather than to the bottom of the engine and back up again?

Rob x-7

if it doesnt bother you, why not just run the new cable, snip the ends

off the old one and hide it for now until the warmer weather then

make everything nice and tidy.

Baldy

That would've been smart, but I don't think that logically. The old cables are already gone from the car. The news ones should go in pretty straight forward. I think the tough part is re-wrapping everything, since it's all super-gooped-up from the tranny bleeding all over the place.



And is now a good time to do the alternator cable as well? Is 4 guage ok for this too?

Rob x-7

a little overkill, but if thats what you have around, why not.

Baldy

Finished up last night, everything went together nicely. Didn't do the alt. yet, need to get more connector thingies. To make the wrapping easier, I just used a bunch of cable ties to organize everything, then wrapped all around those.

i.didnt.do.it

Coolness. When you get it done, snap some pics. You run any to the strut?

Baldy

well the stock neg. cable had a connection to a bolt at the strut tower, and I couldn't figure out how to easily attach the same type of connection to the new cable, so I actually ran a second cable from the terminal connection to the strut tower. I also sanding that spot real good before bolting it on.

i.didnt.do.it

Sanding is a good idea, but your gonna want to put some dieletrical grease around the spot where its connected so it doesn't corrode. Its a good idea to do that to all your connections from the battery..

Baldy

is that sold at all the usual places? I'll have to pic some of that up when I go to finish my alternator cable.