Battery in the boot how did you do it?

[FD3S Efini]

Hey,
 
I have some low loss thick battery cable to move my battery into the boot but i have a few questions,
 
how have you routed the cables,
 
do i need to keep the fuses in the engine bay or do they need to move with the battery (fuses that are in the box attached to the battery terminal),
 
also how did you secure your battery to the boot?
 
Any help is really appreciated,
 
Cheers
 
Kris

[shaunwil]

Keep the fuses in the engine bay but include extra main inline fuses at the battery to prevent a massive short circuit between the cable and the fuse box if wire is damaged.

Cable is routed down the passenger side of the car, down under the carpet (if you have one) up through a hole near the ecu, under the inner arch in the wheel wheel and then into the engine bay next to the ABS module.

The battery needs to be well secured in the boot, If it isn\'t a gel or lead sealed battery (such as optima etc) then it needs to be in a box too for safety.

What size cable do you have, I\'m running 2x 4gauge Cable for the positive line and 1x 0 gauge (was cheap at time) for the Negative running back to the points the picked up when the battery was in the engine bay !

Shaun

[m4drx]

great post shaun

very helpful for anyone looking to do this.

one thing i\'d add - you can buy battery isolator switches online for a couple of quid. if like me you dont use the fd very often you can push a button to effectively disconnect the battery without having to get tools out.

[stew]

What do you do with the current battery connections?

[batman]

can i just add that the only cable you need to run all the way back to the front is the power cable the earth is best to be as short as possible to a cleaned up mount anywhere near the battery the chassis is the biggest cable you ll get >

[shaunwil]

I tried that originally and ended up putting the 0 gauge in back to the original ground point.

Shaun

[leefitz]

Helpful thread indeed, any recommendations on places to get cable, some form of fixing the battery and a box?? O an I like the sound of the isolator switch m4dux is on about. Mite look into getting one of those too. My drifters only gets out once a month at best so it would be nice to kill the power to her when not in use.

[SiH]

Vehicle Wiring Products have all you need for the cable
I actually used welding cable as it\'s much mroe flexible, and sheathed it in plastic conduit for extra protection.
Fixing wise, I used some steel bar and bolted it through the boot flor, with some spreader plates under the floor.

[C J R]

To add to this thread, I located my battery in the space under the rear storage compartment (rear bins) behind the front passeger seat.
 
I mounted the original fuse box that was attached to the battery on a home made bracket in the space left when I removed the ABS unit.
 
As offered by Shaun, I ran the live cable from the relocated fuse box, through a cut off switch, through the passenger footwell, under the carpet into the space under the rear bin.
 
The earth cable as also suggested above, was kept to the shortest length possible so I used the old rear seat belt pick up point on the transmission tunnel after cleaning the local paint from around the bolt hole to make a good earth.
 
I then wired in leads to the positive and negative posts so I can plug in a trickle charger as the car is only used through the warmer months.
 
The battery cables an fittings came from the company named in the thread above.
 
The battery is located on an fixed to a battery tray which is fixed (very firmly) to the floor (under the rear bin).
Just a note, to make space for the battery I cut the bottoms out of both rear bins, so just the lids and the surrounding plastic is visible, making it look like a factory finish.
 
I located the methanol tank, pump and selonoids etc under the bin lid behind the drivers seat.
 
I can post up some pictures tonight if it would help.

[shaunwil]

I think the cheapest place to buy the isolator is off ebay. You need a 120 amp minimum.

Shaun

[Jono FD3]

take a look in my project thread Kris, everything you need is shown there & exactly how I did mine Not a problem with it to date other than a flat beattery due to lack of use over the winter! LOL

Jono

[leefitz]

Great stuff, cheers C J R, stick up pics surly, an I wouldn\'t mind knowing a bit more about removing the abs too.
 Will get a look at your thread tomorrow jono, cheers

[C J R]

As promised, a few pictures of the re-arranged wiring after removal of the ABS system and a picture of the battery before fitting the rear bins.

[leefitz]

That\'s class man, made a nice job of it. I\'m home in just over 3 weeks for a couple of days so I will have to order all the bits and have them sitting ready to go.  No dout I will have more questions when I\'m doing the move but all the information here helps alot. Was there many problems in removing the ABS?

[C J R]

Hi,
Ask away when you come up with more questions.
 
ABS removal was straight forward, I followed this "How to" on FDUK site, (there is another recent thread with a different method).
 
Hope this helps.
 
http://www.fduk.org/forum/showthread.php?t=13886