What Gauge wire to replace Battery/Starter cables?

[Riley 0]

As title,

 

What's the gauge/amps of the standard battery cables on the Corrado? Everything on ebay is listed as mm squared. Also same question for the starter motor cable.

 

I'm looking at replacing it all with nice new stuff:thumbleft: so any input on the best size/rating to go for?

 

Neil.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Riley

[RW1 0]

'92 G60:

(mm2 = square millimetres)

 

+12volts Battery /Starter - Black: 16mm2

+12volts Battery / Relay-Fuse Plate - Red: 6mm2

+12volts Starter / Alternator - Black: 10mm2

 

-ve Battery/earths 4 off :-

Ground cable : 35mm2

Earth - Brown: 6mm2

Earth - Brown: 1.5mm2

Earth - Brown: 0.5mm2

 

.

[steveo29 0]

done all mine with 4 gauge ...way thicker than the puny std stuff

[Riley 0]

Cheers lads:thumbleft:

 

Won't there be a point where an earth cable for example could be too thick? More resistance?

 

I was looking at going from > to:

 

+12volts Battery /Starter: 16mm2 > 20mm2

+12volts Battery / Relay-Fuse Plate: 6mm2 > 8.5mm2

+12volts Starter / Alternator: 10mm2 > 10mm2

 

 

-ve Battery/earths 4 off :-

Ground cable : 35mm2 > 35mm2

Earth - Brown: 6mm2 > 8.5mm2

Earth - Brown: 1.5mm2 > 2mm2

Earth - Brown: 0.5mm2 > 1mm2

 

---------- Post added at 8:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 8:41 PM ----------

 

PS: How does this connect to the fuse box? Spade terminal? Just wondering about a spade connector that will do?

+12volts Battery / Relay-Fuse Plate

Edited March 26, 2012 by Riley

[Stonejag 10]

Cheers lads:thumbleft:

 

Won't there be a point where an earth cable for example could be too thick? More resistance?

The thicker it is the greater cross-sectional area, so less resistance ;) The limiting factor is more to do with whether you can terminate it properly. You can get very large crimp terminals from an electrician for pennies but be warned you absolutely do need the correct tool to do it with - if you try and bodge it with a vice or pair of pliers you'll get a horrible joint which will fail soon. You need something like this to do it properly.

 

Stone

[Riley 0]

The thicker it is the greater cross-sectional area, so less resistance ;)

 

Stone

 

Ah, of course.:thumbleft: Thanks for that, spot on. I have the usual ratchet for the common red/blue/yellow connectors, but will look to see what size connectors I need before looking at bigger ones. Thanks for the link, hopefully I can give the ol' G60 wiring a bit of a boost!

 

Neil.

[RW1 0]

PS: How does this connect to the fuse box? Spade terminal? Just wondering about a spade connector that will do?

+12volts Battery / Relay-Fuse Plate

The wire connects to the fuse/relay plate in the top corner next to the door pillar when the fuse/relay plate is installed. Pin 3 and uses a standard size spade.

 

.

[Riley 0]

Forum won't let me show an image for some reason...Edit: Links really need to be a different colour too! Bolded below.

 

Position Y3? Bottom Right? Where there are 4 single spade connectors? :thumbleft: > http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/a777ovl/etka/corrado/fuseboxrear.jpg

 

I'll be having a look as soon as I get the time but good to get the info.

[hrdwdpro 10]

The way we terminate cables in the shop is to put the terminal in a vice and heat it with a torch. Have someone hold thee stripped wire near the torch to get it hot. Fill the terminal all the way up with solder and quickly insert it into the terminal. If you have stripped the wire to the perfect length you will get a very neat cable that will absolutely never pull apart and the least resistance possible in that joint. The tricky part is heating the wire enough without melting the jacket. I have seen this done without heating the wire and only melting the solder into the terminal but I have always questioned the cold solder joint theory when doing it that way. It did work for him and it was still very strong.

[RW1 0]

Yes Y3 Bottom right which is the top outer corner against the door pillar when the fuse /relay plate is fitted.

Pin 3 of those 4 spade connections.

 

.

[Stonejag 10]

The way we terminate cables in the shop is to put the terminal in a vice and heat it with a torch. Have someone hold thee stripped wire near the torch to get it hot. Fill the terminal all the way up with solder and quickly insert it into the terminal. If you have stripped the wire to the perfect length you will get a very neat cable that will absolutely never pull apart and the least resistance possible in that joint.

The reason they don't do this in the factory is because leaded solder will 'creep' under tension. It is unusual (you have to get the conditions just right) but I have seen a component pulled straight through a PCB when it was placed under tension because of a design flaw. The ductility of the solder allows it to slowly change shape until the pressure is relieved - which in my case was when the component launched itself clear across the room! This was stationary and at room temperature so would obviously be more likely when hot and subjected to vibration.

 

The joint will also have none of the normal flexibility where it leaves the connector so you'd need to enforce a wider bend radius than the stock cable. In many applications I do exactly the same thing but cars isn't one of them. Also never both crimp and solder!

 

If you invest in the right crimp tool for the job you'll do a much better job of it :) Most of the mid-range ones let you swap the dies over as well, so you can use the same tool for many types of terminal.

 

Stone

[Riley 0]

The way we terminate cables in the shop is to put the terminal in a vice and heat it with a torch. Have someone hold thee stripped wire near the torch to get it hot. Fill the terminal all the way up with solder and quickly insert it into the terminal. If you have stripped the wire to the perfect length you will get a very neat cable that will absolutely never pull apart and the least resistance possible in that joint. The tricky part is heating the wire enough without melting the jacket. I have seen this done without heating the wire and only melting the solder into the terminal but I have always questioned the cold solder joint theory when doing it that way. It did work for him and it was still very strong.

 

Thanks for the input, I tend to agree about the lack of 'tinning' on the wire, can't beat knowing that both joints are nicely infused! lol. I do have a pretty powerful soldering iron, can't remember the wattage now but I could look at using that for tinning up the wire I guess, maybe even the terminal too.

 

Yes Y3 Bottom right which is the top outer corner against the door pillar when the fuse /relay plate is fitted.

Pin 3 of those 4 spade connections.

 

.

 

Great, thanks for confirming.:thumbleft:

 

Cheers for the input lads, will try and tackle this soon.