Tabres Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 A question for those of you who have relocated your battery, what did you do with the factory ground cable? Did you eliminate it entirely or did you run a ground from the new battery location and tie it in with the factory ground harness? Have you experienced any starting issues with how you've set yours up? For my relocation, I'm presently looking at completely eliminating the factory battery ground cable and simply grounding the battery in the trunk to the chassis and then letting the chassis carry the ground. I do recognize there is a small two wire plug spliced into the factory ground cable that leads to the fuse box. I would remove from this the factory ground cable and then attach it to the chassis separately in the fender somewhere. With that done it appears the factory battery ground can be eliminated without issue. Picture of said two wire cable I'm referencing. The one bolts to the core support and spliced into the main ground harness... Thoughts/opinions/experiences, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 I got rid of mine, then ran a larger ground wire from the block to the frame, then another ground from the started to the frame. Lastly another ground for the battery in the trunk to the frame.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmage Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 crap i did this, but I dont remember what i did now exactly haha. Ill have to get back under the fender tonight when i get home and see what i did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 i cut the large factory ground and put it directly to the frame rail in the front. then just grounded the battery in the trunk to the frame rail. cant say if i have issues because my car doesn't have an engine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted November 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 then another ground from the started to the frameSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I'm assuming you meant to say starter instead of started, which leaves me a little foggy on how you did this? The starter only has a power feed and a signal wire.i cut the large factory ground and put it directly to the frame rail in the front. then just grounded the battery in the trunk to the frame rail. cant say if i have issues because my car doesn't have an engine... Just so I'm understanding you correctly, you cut out the large cable correctly and just grounded the smaller two-wire cable to the frame? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 i cut the battery clamp end off of the large cable. i then installed a ring terminal in place of the battery terminal end. I then took the eyelet and grounded that directly to the frame. This way i did not have to eliminate or change any of the factory harness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttocs Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 the best advice I can give is you can never have too much ground. Use the biggest wire you can find, be SURE to scrape away the paint when doing it and try to keep the wires as short as possible. Because of the large stereo and air ride system I wanted to be sure it was all good so I ran dual 0 awg down the car, one for power one for ground. Up front it grounds at the frame rail and from there directly to the alt as well. This is normally accomplished with just a run to the block but my alt is a high power competition series and has a lug for the alt ground. Since it is the source of the power it doesn't get much to be much better of a place to ground it. From there the power wires go back to the back seat area where I have the ground and power wires broken out into separate runs with fused distribution blocks, as well as with a 0 awg again power and ground going to the back were I have a dual battery system. I did ground the batteries at the trunk as well as to the 0awg I ran again just to be sure the power system is as good as I can make it. In reality the frame should be more then enough and the additional ground wire is not needed but again, you can't ground the electrical system of your car well enough.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 I'm assuming you meant to say starter instead of started, which leaves me a little foggy on how you did this? The starter only has a power feed and a signal wire.Just so I'm understanding you correctly, you cut out the large cable correctly and just grounded the smaller two-wire cable to the frame?yes I meant starter, autocorrect changed it and I must have over looked when I spell checked; haha. What I mean is I grounded the starters case to the frame so the starter can run as hard as it possible, like said above (you can never have to much ground)being there is a decent bit of resistance in the length of battery cable from the trunk to the starter.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted November 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Thanks for all of the opinions, gents! And you bring up a good point, @ttocs. My car is pretty basic on the electrical side. No high output starter here, no high output alternator, and truthfully I couldn't have any less interest in having a big stereo in the car, they've just never been my thing. I thought about this more last night and I'm actually not that concerned about the chassis carrying the ground well. I've got a 1/0 AWG ground cable I'm installing from the battery to the chassis, and have full-length subframe connectors and a roll-bar in the car. And the size of the ground I have from the chassis to the engine is enormous, like half again larger than 1/0 AWG. It was a spare ground cable that my Dad just happened to have laying around at work from one of their machines. They use these monster commercial diesel engines in road construction equipment, so I don't think it was ever envisioned to go into a passenger vehicle but it works great... lol. So gut feeling, it should do just fine. All else, I can always verify with an ohm meter after I get everything installed. If I can find a good spot to mount the main factory ground cable that isn't really in the way of anything or cluttering things up, I'll keep it, otherwise I'll probably just delete it as I mentioned above. Rest of the relocation will be completed with a remote starter solenoid in the trunk triggered by a relay from the original starter signal wire. 1/0 wire to the starter, and a two separate 4-gauge, one for the fuse box and one for the alternator, making it easy for me to put in a shutoff switch in the future if I ever have need to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanter Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 I just grounded the factory batter cable ground to the core support. Then added a larger ground from the block to frame and grounded the battery to the frame in the trunk. No issues starting. Like ttocs said you can never have to many grounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blwnbyu Posted December 30, 2015 Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 I have 4 awg grounds from engine to chassis lol. I'm sure I cut that harness out and regrounded it. Also a 200 amp alternator and dual 4 gauge running from it to the batteries. Never any issues at allSent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det_Riot Posted January 2, 2016 Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 Would having solid motor mounts count as a ground since its block to metal mounts to frame.As long as paint is scraped in between each you'd think its grounding.................or at least the theory sounds good!!! LolThis message courtesy of crapatalk!As long as it's metal to metal and then the k member is metal to frameSent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttocs Posted January 2, 2016 Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 I have 4 awg grounds from engine to chassis lol. I'm sure I cut that harness out and regrounded it. Also a 200 amp alternator and dual 4 gauge running from it to the batteries. Never any issues at allSent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk200A and dual 4 awg? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blwnbyu Posted January 2, 2016 Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 200A and dual 4 awg?YesSent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blwnbyu Posted January 2, 2016 Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 200a is a lot thru 4awgThis message courtesy of crapatalk!That's why there is 2 of them....Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
