I am replacing my cousin's battery, but his factory wires seems too short. I was going to replace it with 4 gauge, but i was looking at his car, and it seems like the + is connected to the starter? How would i go on switching that out?

 

Somethings wrong if you have to extend the battery cables. The factory ones are definitely long enough. Are you sure you have the correct battery? You don't have a battery that has the neg. and poss. post reversed from what was in the car do you? I would find out what is wrong here rather than trying to extend the cables. You definitely shouldn't have to.

 

Generally if I need more battery cable length, I just cut the tie straps that hold the cable down. This usually gives me enough extra slack. That is unless you need a lot of extra slack. If should give you a couple of inches of play.

 

yeah i was thinking about trying that.

and yes the battery does have reversed post. After market audio battery ftl. Kinetik ftl!

 

When I installed the Optima red-top, [the terminals are little too far from the corner], I had to tug and pull the wire to get them on the posts. The wire is a bit taunt for my taste and I have had the concern has been that the terminal may break as the set up is in tension. Ideally there should be a slack as vibrations and inertia of the battery may break the post-plate connection. It has been years and nothing bad has happened.

Back to the original question... One should not splice the wire.. so buy a little longer wire [with the ends already made]. Next would be to cut the terminal off the wire and have a new end made. Then buy a new terminal which would act as an extender and screw on the new end to it.

The best solution is to use the right battery and keep the wire as is.

One more thing, watch out for the color coding. DO NOT rely on red being positive and black as negative. Among the GS/SC/RX one of them has it wrong. [I suspect strongly it is the RX]


Salim

 

Tight wires can cause stress on the terminal more than the wire causing the battery to fail prematurely.
Any reason why the correct terminal orientation couldn't be sourced? I would think that would be the easiest solution and cause less concern in the future as things wear and age.

 

kinetiks only seem to have one terminal orientation.

 

My 1st. choice would definitely be to get the correct battery. They do make cable connectors that have a set screw to hold each end of the cable, they also have butt connectors that swedge on. I'm not a big fan of either of them, don't think it's a good idea to go extending battery cables. You're only asking for trouble down the road.