Smuggler's box battery - how do I get power to the accessory cables?

[deathpunk dan]

So, last night I installed a rennline battery relocation kit and odyssey 925 battery in the smuggler's box. I need to pull the battery cable back and route it into the box, which should be easy.

But, how I deal with getting power to the 3 accessory wires that normally also attach to the positive post near the fuse box? These wires appear to part of the main harness which is all taped up and I don't wish to mangle it.

Can I run a cable from the battery to these wires somehow?

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks

[ChkbookMechanic]

I'd just cut the terminals off the wires and extend them back to the new battery box and install new terminals on the extensions.

[deathpunk dan]

Well, I feel foolish.

That's a great idea.

[m1franck]

Dan, I completed the same project you're currently working on. I removed the electrical tape insulation from the harness starting at the point where the harness drops into the interior above the clutch pedal & pulled the insulation off all the way to the fuse panel. I found a common point of where all the positive wires could be bundled together, cut them, added a butt connector & extended a new wire into the interior of the car. Crimped & soldered the butt connection & rewrapped it all in electrical tape. The new wire drops in with the harness above the clutch pedal, follows the route of the brake fluid lines behind the pedals & other electrical harness, to the center tunnel. From there it comes up through the hole in the bottom of the smugglers box. Attached are some pics. BTW, the perfect sized replacement cap for where the wires enter the smugglers box can be obtained at Home Depot. It's a 3" (I think) rubber pipe cap with hose clamp. Perfect fit.

[white85carrera]

Mifranck-that is well done!

[JeremyD]

Wow - m1franck -that's the cleanest car I have seen in a long time.

[m1franck]

Thanks for the compliments, although I'm not sure how long it will stay this clean. I should have it ready to drive by the end of this coming weekend. It's been raining like crazy here in the NW, so it may sit in the shop another week or two until the roads dry up. This trunk clean up project was the result of scope creep of a front suspension rebuild. You know, while you're in there you might as well replace the .........

Here's a link to before & after photos: MobileMe Gallery

[JeremyD]

I feel better already. When someone tells me I am out of control I'll just pull up your pictures. Very nicely done!

[tobluforu]

God damn that's a clean trunk!

[B'dole]

Sorry to stir an old thread, but I wanted to share an alternative wiring approach.

I considered pulling the starter cable through the firewall at the pedal cluster as suggested, but had a couple of issues. Mainly I wanted to preserve as much originality in case the next owner chose to restore the car.
-It appeared that to return the starter cable to it's OEM position would be very difficult after pulling it through the firewall.
-I didn't want to drill more holes in the firewall.
-I removed the flooring under the pedal cluster, but pulling the cable from the driver's footwell looked like a real hassle, even though the forum members seem to have accomplished it fine.

Instead I chose to lengthen the starter cable from its stock position. I did this with 6 feet of 1/0 AWG cable and a 1/0 butt splice. The larger size served two purposes. Since the wiring run was longer I wanted to minimize current loss. Also, the 2 AWG starter cable combined with the four (?!) 12 AWG accessory cables fit snugly in the 1/0 butt connector.

separating the driver's side positive post terminals


setting aside the detached 6V battery series cable


1/0 butt splice with heat shrink, and later electical tape


the finished wiring run (includes 6-pole kill switch installed below ashtray)

[moneymanager]

If you don't want to cut the stock wires, just run them into one side of a small terminal then run another line from the other side on to its destination. Put it all in a plastic box that you velcro or glue somewhere out of sight. Pretty simple.