Trunk mounted battery ideas..

Shakin66 · Oct 23, 2005

I am moving the battery to the truck to make room for the larger than expected powerdyne supercharger and wonder how some of you guys have done this. I tried a search but found nothing about the best routing of the positive wire. Thanks in advance for your help.

57fairlane · Oct 23, 2005

In my falcon, the battery is mounted above the passenger side rear tire. I ran the positive along the back part of the trunk to the push/pull on the drivers side above the tire. I ran the positive after the cut-off switch back to the passenger side then under the back seat up along the sill panel under the carpet. I am pretty sure I made a hole in the firewall and just put in a grommet and called it a day.

Protowrxs · Oct 23, 2005

Years ago in my old 69 coupe I used a marine plastic box, mounted it down in the right rear of the trunk area and ran the positive under the door sill, through the firewall with a grommet and to the starter solenoid. Will likely do the same on the rebuild but with fusing at the battery just in case.

-Stephen

jbuening · Oct 24, 2005

Are you wanting to keep the solenoid in the engine bay or relocate it to the trunk? I relocated both in the trunk of my 70 and ran the starter wire up over the passenger rear wheelwell and under the sill plates and drilled a hole in the toe board right above the starter and put a grommet in and ran the wire to the starter. I mounted the solenoid on the vertical brace next to the folddown trapdoor. I took an repro battery tray and removed the vertical brace and mounted that tray in the trunk. This allowed me to use the stock holddowns also. Great theft deterrant with the solenoid in the trunk and you don't have a constant hot wire going the length of your car. This way it is only hot during cranking. If you need pics let me know.

2nd Mustang · Oct 24, 2005

The previous owner installed the battery in the trunk and left the solenoid in the engine compartment. The cable (zero gauge I think) is going through a grommet through the floor of the trunk and front fender well. It's routed under the floor pans through a soft conduit of some kind on the inner side of the frame rails so it's protected from bottoming out. It also has a quick release wing nut arrangement at the positive terminal.

Edbert · Oct 24, 2005

Spend the extra money on a late model starter. You get the benefit jbuening mentioned without having to mount a solenoid in the trunk too. I planned on moving the solenoid but chenaged my mind when I realised how simple the late-model starter was to use.

Here's a shot of my battery:

Shakin66 · Oct 24, 2005

Great guys thanks. I was hoping the normal routing was into the car. I plan on leaving the sol. in its orginal location but it is very close to the powerdyne blower housing so I may end up having to move it. Now I have a problem with this gear drive starter hitting the drag link when I steer the car....

Shakin66 · Oct 24, 2005

Ed Bert, That looks great. You should see my truck right now its a mess and just bare metal. I really want to use this gear drive starter if possible...I wonder now if it has its own soleniod?

65mistress · Oct 24, 2005

jbuening said:
... If you need pics let me know.

JB- Please post Pics of this, I'm interested in seeing how this might be done.

Edbert- Where would I be able to find information on using late model starters? That'd be interesting as well.

Cbarton · Oct 24, 2005

This is what I just ordered. Pretty reasonable in price.....

http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/tm-1.shtml

Chris Barton

jbuening · Oct 24, 2005

Cbarton said:
This is what I just ordered. Pretty reasonable in price.....

http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/tm-1.shtml

Chris Barton

Is it just me or does that kit not come with the 1/0 gauge wire from the solenoid to the starter? I think that wire alone ran me $25 for 15 feet, which barely gave me enough to work with. I'll post some pics when i get home hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

68rustang · Oct 25, 2005

Edbert said:
I planned on moving the solenoid but changed my mind when I realized how simple the late-model starter was to use.

Care to elaborate? I am in the same position right now. Everything I have read on here talks about piggy backing the integral solenoid off of the fender mounted solenoid.

Edbert · Oct 26, 2005

68rustang said:
Care to elaborate? I am in the same position right now. Everything I have read on here talks about piggy backing the integral solenoid off of the fender mounted solenoid.

All the solenoid does is take a small current line from the ignition switch and use to to flip the switch allowing the full amperage to reach the starter. There's no need for two of them. You can attach the B+ lead directly to the starter and use the line from the switch to activate it. I'd suggest this as a good time to do a 1-wire alternator too, between these swaps you can dump a lot of wiring and eyesores.

EDIT: I want to put a positive comment in for madelectrical (mentioned above), Mark the owner/proprieter is a great guy and as helpful as any I've found even if you are only buying a few items. In fact if you call him I'd make sure you are not in a hurry, he's a wealth of knowledge and experience and he LOVES to share what he knows. A+ guy!

Edbert · Oct 26, 2005

Shakin66 said:
Ed Bert, That looks great. You should see my truck right now its a mess and just bare metal. I really want to use this gear drive starter if possible...I wonder now if it has its own soleniod?

Mine was there too (http://www.edbert.net/trunk.htm), I'm confused by the term "gear drive starter" though, they are all electric motors that drive gears right?

66HertzClone · Oct 26, 2005

I think he meant "gear reduction" starter as all the Ford mini starters are. You did a nice clean job on the wiring and the truck detailing.

I used the mini starter on my stroker and am very happy with it. I will be converting the fuel injection this winter and plan to clean up the wiring under the hood in the process. I will be eliminating the original fender mounted solenoid during this process. I considered moving the battery to the trunk but just can't bring my self to do it. I have a deka battery and was able to remove the labels form it. Using aftermarket cables without those annoying extra leads I was able to make the battery area look clean. The only remaining mess under the hood now is the solenoid.

Protowrxs · Oct 26, 2005

Great info folks!!

I was going to put the battery in the trunk again and was trying to figure out how to move/hide the solenoid since I'm welding up holes in the fender panels.

I'm sold on moving the solenoid to the trunk now.

Nice
-Stephen

68rustang · Oct 26, 2005

Edbert said:
All the solenoid does is take a small current line from the ignition switch and use to to flip the switch allowing the full amperage to reach the starter. There's no need for two of them. You can attach the B+ lead directly to the starter and use the line from the switch to activate it. I'd suggest this as a good time to do a 1-wire alternator too, between these swaps you can dump a lot of wiring and eyesores.

I understand what the solenoid does. What I am looking for is how you hook up to the late model starter instead of the fender mounted solenoid.

The fender solenoid has +12V, I, S, and -12V

The late model starter I have has a big screw terminal (+12V from battery) and a small spade connector, that's it. Does the ignition key START just connect to the spade connector and the battery to the terminal. Is that all? It sounds too simple.

Yes I am installing a late model one wire alternator while I am in there. That part is easy. The part I am having trouble with is figuring out the late model 302 and EFI that are connected to it

Edbert · Oct 26, 2005

68rustang said:
The late model starter I have has a big screw terminal (+12V from battery) and a small spade connector, that's it. Does the ignition key START just connect to the spade connector and the battery to the terminal. Is that all? It sounds too simple.

Yes I am installing a late model one wire alternator while I am in there. That part is easy. The part I am having trouble with is figuring out the late model 302 and EFI that are connected to it

Yes, it is that simple. The only question I don't have an answer for is what do you do with the "other" wires in the factory harness.

Regarding the EFI, I do not envy you, the universal kit is scary enough for me

68rustang · Oct 26, 2005

Edbert said:
Yes, it is that simple. The only question I don't have an answer for is what do you do with the "other" wires in the factory harness.

Regarding the EFI, I do not envy you, the universal kit is scary enough for me

Thanks for the info Edbert. As far as the "other" wires go the car is completely stripped of everything so I will be adding wires as I need them. I have a "universal" wiring kit that I will be using as the main wiring for the car. After this EFI that should be cake.

Every evening I am out in the garage I am reminded of why I chose Mechanical Engineering over Electrical Engineering.

crapola

the thought of dousing the project with gasoline and setting it on fire crosses my mind often.

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