Battery Relocation - March 15, 2008

Tools and Materials

• Dremel or grinder with cut-off wheel
• Drill
• (Very) large soldering iron
• Braille B14115 11.5 lb. battery ($149.99 from Braille Auto)
• Aluminum sheet ($32.32 from mcmaster.com) or Braille battery mount
• 4 bolts, nuts, and washers
• 2 self-tapping screws
• Stinger SCB150 150A circuit breaker ($31.23)
• 15 feet of red 0-gauge Stinger power wire ($59.25)
• 5 feet of black 0-gauge Stinger power wire ($19.75)
• 8 0-gauge Stinger ring terminals ($15.96)
• 2 feet of 4-gauge wire
• 1 4-gauge ring terminal
• Rubber grommet
• Electrical tape
• Plastic conduit insulation
• Heat-shrink insulation

I purchased the circuit breaker, 0-gauge wire, and ring terminals from Car Audio Stereo at HiFiSoundconnection. I included the prices for the most expensive or hard to find parts above. Everything else can be purchased inexpensively from most hardware stores or auto parts stores. The battery, custom battery mount, cables, circuit breaker, and ring terminals (only two sets) are shown in the picture to the left.
Instead of buying the Braille battery mount available for the B14115 battery, I made my own using a piece of aluminum sheet metal. This process is documented here.

1. I started by preparing the trunk for the battery and circuit breaker installation. I placed the battery and mount where I wanted them and then marked holes for where to drill through the floor. I raised the car and checked underneath to make sure there was nothing under the floor where I planned to drill.
2. Then, I positioned the circuit breaker and marked the two holes I needed to drill to hold the breaker in place.
3. I drilled out the four holes for the battery mount and two holes for the circuit breaker using a small drill bit.
4. Then I enlarged the battery mounting holes with the same size drill bit that I used for making the holes in the battery mount (11/32 inch).
   
5. Next, I used two self-tapping screws to attach the circuit breaker to the floor. The circuit breaker will act like a resettable fuse in case the positive lead shorts to ground for any reason. It can also be used as a switch to turn off power to the car without having to disconnect the battery terminals.
   
6. With the trunk ready to have the battery installed, I moved under the hood to start wiring. I first removed the battery from the tray.
   
7. I then took some time to remove the old rusty battery tray from the car. I started by pulling off the badly rusted parts of the tray with pliers.
   
8. Then, I used a cut-off wheel on a dremel to cut around the spot welds that hold the battery tray to the chassis. There are three main spot welds right underneath the tray and three spot welds on the side (right above the frame rail). Try to pull the tray upward, and see where the tray is attached to the chassis to identify the spot-welded areas. The second picture shows the area right above the right side frame rail where I've cut the battery tray from the body.
   
   
9. After cutting out most of the battery tray material, I carefully twisted off the spot-welded pieces to break them off of the body.
   
10. I used a grinder to remove any small pieces of the tray that I couldn't pull off with pliers. I'll remove all the rust from that area and paint it when the weather gets better.
    
11. After removing the tray, I started on the wiring. I decided to run the positive cable from the battery straight to the starter. That way, I could remove the starter wire altogether. Then, I could extend the other wires that attach to the positive battery terminal and also run them directly to the starter. The first thing I did was to cut off the connector (red plastic piece in the picture) that allows for the auxiliary wires to attach to the positive terminal.
    
12. That leaves you with these two white wires, which need to be connected to the starter.
    
13. I extended the two white wires by soldering them to another wire that runs to the starter. I actually used two smaller gauge wires (red) connected in parallel since I didn't have an actual piece of 4-gauge wire. I used shrink-wrap insulation to cover the soldered joint. I soldered a 4-gauge ring terminal on the other end of the extension wire to connect to the starter.
    
    
14. Then, I began to remove the stock starter cable. I had to spray WD-40 on the nut that attaches the cable to the starter to get it off. Be careful not to break the starter solenoid while trying to take off this nut.
    
15. After I removed the cable from the starter, I cut apart the plastic conduit insulation that goes around the starter cable (and many other wires). After that, the starter cable can be removed, which leaves you with a mess of other wires that were in the plastic conduit.
    
16. I ran the extended (white wires) to the starter, bundled all of the wires together again, and covered them with a new piece of plastic conduit and electrical tape.
    
17. I soldered a 0-gauge ring terminal on one end of the 15-foot red 0-gauge wire. You will need a very hot soldering iron to heat up a wire this thick. I started by using the soldering iron at the top of the picture but realized that it wasn't hot enough so I switched to the even larger soldering iron at the bottom of the picture.
    
18. I connected the 0-gauge wire and the extended wires together by bolting them to the starter.
    
    
19. I removed the right side kick panel and the plastic piece that runs along the length of the door opening on the floor. Then, I lifted up the carpet slightly so that I could run the cable underneath the carpet.
    
    
20. To get the wire to the battery, I cut out a hole in the firewall to pass the positive cable.
    
21. I inserted a grommet (which I trimmed to match the size of the cable) into the hole and pulled the cable into the car. I gave the cable some slack in the engine bay to allow the engine to move back and forth without pulling the cable.
    
    
22. The last thing I did in the engine bay was to run a ground wire from the engine to the body. I used a 2-gauge wire (ran out of 0-gauge ring terminals), which should not be a problem since it's such a short piece of cable. I ran the wire from the stock grounding point on the engine intake manifold to the right side strut tower. There is a hole in the strut tower covered by a plastic clip. I took out the clip, sanded off the paint for a good connection, and bolted the ring terminal to the strut tower.
    
    
    
23. I ran the positive cable under the ECU and then along the right side of the car underneath the carpet to the back. Then I slid it behind the right side trunk interior panel and out from underneath the panel to the circuit breaker. The first picture shows the cable where it comes out of the firewall and goes behind the right side kick panel.
    
    
    
24. I wrapped the battery in thick foam to protect it from vibration and bolted it to the floor with the battery mount.
25. Then, I soldered a ring terminal to the end of the long positive battery cable and attached it to the circuit breaker. I cut a short piece of the red wire to attach between the battery and the circuit breaker.
    
26. Finally, I cut a piece of the black wire and connected it from the battery to the bolt that holds the left rear seat belt to the chassis. I removed the paint under the bolt with a grinder for a better electrical connection.
    
27. Here's what it looks like with everything installed. I wrapped the positive wires in a loop to eliminate sharp bends in the wires. I probably could have planned this out better, but it came out looking decent.
    
28. Now that I knew exactly where the red cable needed to come out from behind the interior trunk panel, I cut a small notch in the panel.
    

After installing everything, I closed the circuit breaker switch and started the car. It started with no problems at all. I used a battery tester on the battery just to make sure it was getting charged properly.