So i went to my local "Performance Shop" here in Sierra Vista to get some work done. Now mind you alot of the older guys around town and muscle car drivers take their car here when they don't want to do the work themselves but still get quality work done. So i go over there to get a hole drilled through my fire wall so i can run my battery cable to the trunk on the drivers side. Talking to the tech there he asked me, "So where do you have the negative terminal hooked up?". I told in to the chassy in the rear. He then tells me that i should run it back to the front for a better ground instead of all the way in the rear of the car. Ater talking a little while longer i figured, hey give me two more holes so maybe down the line if i want to install some more gauges i would be good. Now i could use on of the other 2 holes for the negative terminal for my battery......but do i really need to re-route the negative to the front ?

 

If its for a system and you have a big gauge wire running power you might want to do it, if your really concerned with sound quality, but to me its wouldnt be worth it to spend 4-10 dollars a foot on big gauge power wire to run a ground. On the frame is fine.

 

Nahhh, it's not for a system. I put the battery in the trunk to make room in the hood area for the UICP and intake setup i got (plus i wanted to keep my full size battery......something about a mini battery doesn't sit right with me). But not to long ago my car was dead, and i mean completely dead NOTHING. It ended up being the ground i had (which was in ther rear).

 

Why don't you run the wiring thru the fender well like the factory harness?

 

I am not too comfortable running the power wire through the fender due to exposure to the elements. Plus i already have the holes drilled so why not use them ?

 

Oh, relocated a battery to the trunk. I would probibly run a wire for that then. Makes more sense to me, dont really want to screw around with what currents are where, but I have never had a car with a battery that I relocated, just my old SUV which had an extra battery in the trunk.

 

Aah, I gotcha.

 

Yeah i relocated it a while ago and had to run the power line across the cabin side of the firewall through the grommet on the passenger side of the firewall. Well the problem with that was i was already running my boost gauge vacuum line through there and it didn't leave me any room to put a grommet in there. So i went for a couple of months having my power line unprotected through the whole (bad i know). So i finally took it to the shop and had it taken care of. Now i have a power line going through a protected hole on the driverside.

 

Did the guy know you relocated your battery? Because I think the ground cable can only be so long.

Also thinking about this, have you ever seen a relocation kit with a 10' neg. cable? I haven't.

My guess is keep it grounded in the trunk.

 

Well, my race car has the ground wire run to the front along with the power.. I also have it grounded in the trunk. I have had some weird experiences with poor grounding on EFI cars over the years, and would prefer not to introduce a possible problem.

 

Im thinking it wouldnt be too bad if you grounded it in the trunk with a heavy guage wire..then run a smaller guage wire to the front ,(trunk ground not batt) so you can create a common ground bus up front as well. but yah propper grounding for the battery to chassis should be the OP main focus..then engine to chassis needs to be addressed as well.

its getting all about getting the battery and engine at the same grounding potential.....and stereo system for that matter. FYI i say good engine grounding because you count the alternator and ignition. Stay away from ground loops.

 

Current follows the least amount of resistance...The chasis is completely metal. The negative cable from factory is grounded to the chasis is two spots right there in the engine bay. It would be a complete waste of time and money to route a cable to the front of the car.

 

my thoughts exactly, i never ran one to the front, but like malibu said, some efi cars are picky.. if you find any probs than run one to the front..

 

call me a belt and suspenders type a guy then.

ran a lead to the front, about a #4, and a trunk ground too. ran a #1 for + lead.
the least resistance may not be through the bolt you choose, if it is a gimpy little stamped steel captured nut thing-a-mageg.

 

personally i would not want any holes drilled like that. there is a hole to the body inside of the wheelwell cover