Welding cable is more flexible than battery cable so makes routing much easier.
Trying to find an 80" Battery Cable
- Thread starter bunnspecial
- Start date
There are companies that make custom battery cables with whatever ends and length you need. Never tried them, but I've heard decent things about this company: https://www.batterycablesusa.com/4-gauge-awg-marine-grade-battery-cable-with-ends
I know Moss sells it, but for a few reasons I'm trying to avoid Moss.
In any case, thanks to everyone for the suggestions! I ended up buying two 10ft lengths of 4AWG tinned copper marine cable. I also bought ring terminals. It should be here tomororw.
I had planned to solder-I'm very comfortable doing that(I started playing with Lionel trains when I was 6, was repairing 50s stuff when I was 8...considering that I'm 36 now I've been soldering for over 3/4 of my life). With that said, several of you mentioned a hammer crimper and/or hydraulic. Is this worth getting? Should I crimp and solder both? I'm definitely at the point of I want to do this right-I've been talking about replacing this cable since 2017, and if I'm going to crawl under the car to do it I don't want to have to do it again in a year.
I have a few of the generic clamp-on battery(still new in package) in my tool box. I've always bought the type with the metal strap that bolts over the lead body. Is there a better option than these? Is it worth soldering the cable proper to the terminal in addition to using the strap(for mechanical support)?
I will say too that my torch soldering skills are pretty limited. I have a 100W gun(old Radio Shack branded) that I've used a ton, and it's served me well in the past for jobs like soldering 10-14AWG to train track, which soaks up a lot of heat. I mostly work with an iron these days(I do more small work, sometimes circuit board work or the like, or other small tasks) but am comfortable using a gun. Should I just bit the bullet and torch solder? My good torch is currently set up with MAPPro, although I think I have a bottle of propane around the garage(and I think the torch head is rated for either-if not I'm sure I have a couple of the cheap propane heads without ignitors and just a single needle valve on the side). I'm guessing if I do use a torch, propane is probably better for this application-would I be correct in that?
I mentioned buying two spools of wire-what I bought was 10ft each of black and red. I've read of folks running a ground wire directly from the battery to the engine block rather than relying on chassis ground. I'm thinking of sort of doing this-making a cable with rings on each end that I can stack on where the chassis ground strap in the battery box attaches, and then the other end to one of the bolts holding the backing plate to the bell housing.
On eBay and Amazon there are sellers that make custom length cables.
I've never liked the battery terminals what secure the cable with a strap. I've seen a few that became failure points; most likely traceable to bad assembly.
Because I have a hex crimper, I would do a cable with ring terminals at both ends and use marine battery terminals with wing or hex nuts.
You can also use Toyota battery terminals: 90982-06022 (Neg) and 90982-05035 (Pos)
Here's a link with some good info. I found this when I became interested in making my own cables.
You don't have to get spendy with crimpers. There are cheaper off-shore alternatives than this one that I use:
Because I have a hex crimper, I would do a cable with ring terminals at both ends and use marine battery terminals with wing or hex nuts.
You can also use Toyota battery terminals: 90982-06022 (Neg) and 90982-05035 (Pos)
Here's a link with some good info. I found this when I became interested in making my own cables.
Making Your Own Battery Cables - Marine How To
Pick Your Crimp Tool FTZ 94284 & Ancor Hammer Crimper TEMCO TH0005 & FTZ Bench Mount BUY FTZ 94284 CRIMP TOOL - BAY MARINE
marinehowto.com
You don't have to get spendy with crimpers. There are cheaper off-shore alternatives than this one that I use:
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There are online companies that will make you a custom length battery cable. Various gauges, colors and ends.
Don't use wing nuts. Hex nuts with lock washers.I've never liked the battery terminals what secure the cable with a strap. I've seen a few that became failure points; most likely traceable to bad assembly.
Because I have a hex crimper, I would do a cable with ring terminals at both ends and use marine battery terminals with wing or hex nuts.
You can also use Toyota battery terminals: 90982-06022 (Neg) and 90982-05035 (Pos)
Here's a link with some good info. I found this when I became interested in making my own cables.
Making Your Own Battery Cables - Marine How To
Pick Your Crimp Tool FTZ 94284 & Ancor Hammer Crimper TEMCO TH0005 & FTZ Bench Mount BUY FTZ 94284 CRIMP TOOL - BAY MARINEmarinehowto.com
You don't have to get spendy with crimpers. There are cheaper off-shore alternatives than this one that I use:
BrendanC
$100 site donor 2024
as far as battery terminals go, i have yet to find anything that can hold a candle to these. https://a.co/d/0pOux8O
I wanted to follow this up as the project is, well, sort of finished...
I ended up making a new cable more or less in place. I took my 10ft piece of 4AWG marine cable, soldered a battery clamp terminal to one end out of the car, then ran it, cut it to length, and used a hammer crimper to put a copper ring terminal on the other end.
While I was there, I took care of a few other wiring issues that have been bugging me for a while. Several years ago, I upgraded the original 34A model 16ACR alternator to a 60A unit. This is a new alternator built in a case that is identical to the Lucas 18ACR(45A) that was fitted to later model MGBs. My original alternator was a "5 wire" model, and the new one is 3 wire with the same plug as older Bosch alternators. I bought a Bosch pigtail at the time, but was never happy with the quality of the wiring job I did, and running another lead had been on my to-do list for a while. I redid my old butt splice job on the original wiring loom with solder and heat shrink, and then did a second 8 gauge wire straight down to the starter.
Since I still had plenty of terminals and wire, I ran a 4AWG wire from where the ground strap connected to the body down to the bell housing next to the starter. From there, I also piggy-backed an 8AWG wire that I ran up to one of the alternator mounting lugs.
That's all serious overkill I realize, but grounds are also important and I figure running copper from both the starter and the alternator(and in turn to the engine block) takes less worry about attachment to and conductivity of 50 year old British steel.
The underbody grommets that held the wiring as well as the brake and fuel line in place were not in the best shape, so I'm waiting on replacements for those. One in particular I could not manage to finagle back into place(unfortunately the big, $17 one-the little ones that are $2/each were actually useable).
The shop that installed my overdrive honestly did a pretty ugly job wiring it in, and also bypassed the lockout switch. It's normally fine, but I've had a few close calls where I didn't realize I'd bumped the overdrive switch and started trying to reverse with OD engaged-something that can kill an overdrive in no time. I've dealt with it since the OD in my car is a late 4th-gear-only model. I toyed too with building a reverse lock-out circuit so that I could keep 3rd OD(but also 1st and 2nd OD, which are hard on the transmission if inadvertently engaged)-it's electrically simple enough, but decided that at the end of the day just keeping OD 4-only was fine. The appeal of 3OD is that it's basically the same as 4-straight, so it's super nice on the back roads to leave the car in 3rd and get the 3-4 change without the clutch(and in my car without taking my hands off the wheel since the OD switch is on the wiper stalk) but at the end of the day half the fun of driving the car is doing real gear changes!
While I'm at it too, my speedometer quit working a while back. I've verified the cable and everything else good, which makes me suspect the driven gear on the transmission. It's a royal pain to access, but it's in the same general area as where I've been working on the battery cable, so I'll get that out and see if I need to order a replacement.
And too, while I'm waiting on other parts, if I have the time, the reverse lights have never worked in the time I've owned the car. It's not a switch or transmission issue, especially considering that I've changed the transmission twice(swapped out the original because it was had a 3rd and 4th grind, swapped the one that replaced it for the overdrive unit). The lights work, so the issue is in the wiring somewhere-since I'm doing other electrical stuff it seems as good a time as any to actually sort it out.
Sorry, I know that was a bunch of rambling, but there's always stuff to do on this car! Of course it's miserably hot here too now, but I'm not sure I want to be out driving the car either...
I ended up making a new cable more or less in place. I took my 10ft piece of 4AWG marine cable, soldered a battery clamp terminal to one end out of the car, then ran it, cut it to length, and used a hammer crimper to put a copper ring terminal on the other end.
While I was there, I took care of a few other wiring issues that have been bugging me for a while. Several years ago, I upgraded the original 34A model 16ACR alternator to a 60A unit. This is a new alternator built in a case that is identical to the Lucas 18ACR(45A) that was fitted to later model MGBs. My original alternator was a "5 wire" model, and the new one is 3 wire with the same plug as older Bosch alternators. I bought a Bosch pigtail at the time, but was never happy with the quality of the wiring job I did, and running another lead had been on my to-do list for a while. I redid my old butt splice job on the original wiring loom with solder and heat shrink, and then did a second 8 gauge wire straight down to the starter.
Since I still had plenty of terminals and wire, I ran a 4AWG wire from where the ground strap connected to the body down to the bell housing next to the starter. From there, I also piggy-backed an 8AWG wire that I ran up to one of the alternator mounting lugs.
That's all serious overkill I realize, but grounds are also important and I figure running copper from both the starter and the alternator(and in turn to the engine block) takes less worry about attachment to and conductivity of 50 year old British steel.
The underbody grommets that held the wiring as well as the brake and fuel line in place were not in the best shape, so I'm waiting on replacements for those. One in particular I could not manage to finagle back into place(unfortunately the big, $17 one-the little ones that are $2/each were actually useable).
The shop that installed my overdrive honestly did a pretty ugly job wiring it in, and also bypassed the lockout switch. It's normally fine, but I've had a few close calls where I didn't realize I'd bumped the overdrive switch and started trying to reverse with OD engaged-something that can kill an overdrive in no time. I've dealt with it since the OD in my car is a late 4th-gear-only model. I toyed too with building a reverse lock-out circuit so that I could keep 3rd OD(but also 1st and 2nd OD, which are hard on the transmission if inadvertently engaged)-it's electrically simple enough, but decided that at the end of the day just keeping OD 4-only was fine. The appeal of 3OD is that it's basically the same as 4-straight, so it's super nice on the back roads to leave the car in 3rd and get the 3-4 change without the clutch(and in my car without taking my hands off the wheel since the OD switch is on the wiper stalk) but at the end of the day half the fun of driving the car is doing real gear changes!
While I'm at it too, my speedometer quit working a while back. I've verified the cable and everything else good, which makes me suspect the driven gear on the transmission. It's a royal pain to access, but it's in the same general area as where I've been working on the battery cable, so I'll get that out and see if I need to order a replacement.
And too, while I'm waiting on other parts, if I have the time, the reverse lights have never worked in the time I've owned the car. It's not a switch or transmission issue, especially considering that I've changed the transmission twice(swapped out the original because it was had a 3rd and 4th grind, swapped the one that replaced it for the overdrive unit). The lights work, so the issue is in the wiring somewhere-since I'm doing other electrical stuff it seems as good a time as any to actually sort it out.
Sorry, I know that was a bunch of rambling, but there's always stuff to do on this car! Of course it's miserably hot here too now, but I'm not sure I want to be out driving the car either...
JHZR2
Staff member
Glad you’re making progress! The diy really is straightforward, it’s easy. There are a few outfits that will make them for you. Some eBay auctions you can also state your cable size and terminations.
CE Auto Electric will build any cable you need.
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