89FormulaRoth

iTrader: (1)

I was wondering what you guys think about my progress on my relocating my battery to my hatch. Before anyone brings it up, I know the battery cut off switch need to be on the positive wire to be NHRA legal. I don't plan on running this car at the strip, so it doesn't really matter to me. I have the Flaming River cut off switch in place to deter theft only. Also I'm not sure why, but the Moroso battery box is black, but it doesn't look that way in the picture. I made the cables myself, the positive wire runs in the channel inside the wheel well in the picture. In some places the channel isn't deep enough to place a clamp, so I'm welding tabs in place. The remainder of positive cable is attached to my Kenny Brown sub-frame connectors. I will probably place corrogated tubing over the cable to help protect it, but it will be electrically dead except when starting the car anyway, so the chances of a short are small. The other picture shows the key for the Flaming River battery cut off switch. The relocation kit I'm using is from Mad Enterprises. Anybody use it yet? Thanks in advance for opinions or comments!

11SEC91Z

iTrader: (4)

Looks good man.Thinking about getting the moroso kit myself.How was the quality. Have everything you need,cable long enough?

89FormulaRoth

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm, I wouldn't say the kit quality was bad, but I had to make a lot of changes. First off, I didn't buy the entire kit. I got my cable and terminal ends from Wiringproducts.com. More on that in a minute. The battery box itself is pretty nice. As for the hardware...

The fasteners to hold the cover on are plastic screws. For the price ($96.88 from Summit) I would expect to get something nicer than that (maybe Dzus fasteners) because the box itself is made out of the same plastic as a milk carton and I seriously doubt it costs much to produce. The bracket that holds the battery was too small for my Optima Red Top. I gave it a little encouragement (bent the Hell out of it), but it still didn't want to fit right. It was probably about 1/8" too narrow. I ended up making my own because I didn't want to damage the battery and have it leak. The rest of the hardware was good.

If I had to do it again, I'd try Summit's battery box, P/N SUM-G1231 that goes for $68.95. It seems to be identical, except that you don't pay for the name "Moroso."

Back to the wiring: I chose to get the wiring separately for several reasons:
1. Moroso's kit comes with 2-gage wire and I felt that I needed 1/0 gage wire because of a recommendation made by Mark Hamilton (in his battery relocation wiring kit if I recall correctly) of Mad Electrical.
2. Moroso's wiring kit didn't include enough clamps to hold my wire in place. I'm putting one at least every 6". Granted my car is no Super Hornet, but I've seen wires fail and fires start in our jets because wires that seemed to be properly secured moved just enough to rub off their insulation. I bought mine separately from Summit.
3. Moroso's terminals are held in place by compression. Without solder in a connection, resistance is increased and since resistance is the enemy, I chose to solder by terminals in place.
4. I wanted to do some serious customizing of my battery cables and I needed a lot of terminals.
5. I wanted the satisfaction of making my own custom cables. The only tools I really needed were: a Benzomatic Torch from Home Depot to melt the solder slugs, Klein Cable Cutters from Sears, and a heat gun to melt the shrink wrap between the cable and the terminal ends.

Sorry, that was probably more information than you wanted , but I included my thoughts just in case you did. In a nutshell, buy the Summit Battery Box, the relocation kit from Mad Electrical, and custom build your own battery cables. Just my opinion. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Mark

By the way, nice car you've got, 11SEC91Z!

11SEC91Z

iTrader: (4)

Not more than I wanted at all man! Thanks for the detailed info.I wondered what gauge cable came in it as I wanted 1/0 cable too.Ill definately look into the summit kit.Never heard of mad electrical but Ill google it.Thanks for the props on my car/money pit.lol ..Thanks again!

89FormulaRoth

iTrader: (1)

You're welcome.

Back in September of 1998, Car Craft ran an article called "Trunk-Mount Battery The Safe Way". It was all about Mad Electrical's battery trunk mount kit. The key point was that the advantage to using Mark Hamilton's kit was that the starter cable is electrically dead except during cranking. I read the article back then, but it was the furthest thing from my mind at the time. I hadn't even seen my 1989 Formula 350 yet. When I saw her later that year for the first time with only 37K miles on the odometer, I was in love, but that is a different story.

Fast forward to 2005. I had surgery to fuse my neck together. I had 45 days of convalescent leave from my job so that some dead guy's femur could fuse with two segments of my spine, so I did a lot of research and ordered a lot of car parts from the internet. I came across Mad Electrical again purely by accident. I decided to order the trunk mount kit.

When I called, I got Mark Hamilton on the phone. We talked for probably 45 minutes. At the time, I knew next to nothing about wiring. I'm nobody, but he took the time to educate me. I was pretty stoked because the guy was published in a major magazine. Additionally, his kit is great and his Web site has all kinds of great tech in it for free. Now here I am, eight years later and I still haven't completed this car... Again, that's another story.

Anyway, I can't recommend Mad Electrical enough and no, I'm not on Mark's payroll. He's got all kinds of great kits for curing problems like dim headlights, hot start, etc. If there's anything else I can help with, I'd be happy to share. I've spent the better part of 6 years reading and learning on these boards and now that I finally know a few things I’m more than willing to share what I’ve learned.

11SEC91Z

iTrader: (4)

Glad you recovered well.

This is what makes TGO so good sometimes,guys like you willing to help a fellow f-body out!