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Battery Cable Lengths

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GranTorinoSport View Drop Down
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    Posted: 23-August-2013 at 6:25AM
So as I am getting ready to put the engine/trans in this weekend (now that I am finally home), I am starting to look at "underhood installation items". One of those things are battery cables. Having been a 351W car with the fender mounted solenoid means I will be going to 460 with starter mounted solenoid.

This is not a worry so much, because I am going to order some nice thick custom battery cables. What I am curious of is if the factory lengths work for you, or if you deviated from it?

A cursory search shows a 45 inch negative cable (which won't really change much based on engine), but the positive cable still shows having a fender mounted solenoid...

So the length I imagine (battery to solenoid on starter) is probably somewhere around 55 inches?

What configuration are you using? I can order cables with an additional 4 Ga wire off the battery terminal to go to a terminal block to accessory power instead of running another cable up from the starter.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote madmaxtorino Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-August-2013 at 6:52AM
You can use both solenoids and stay with the stock length cables. The big wire from the starter will be moved to the other side of the fender mounted solenoid, same one as the battery hooks to. Then you just run a new smaller gauge wire from the other side of the fender solenoid to the small hook up on the new starter.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote madmaxtorino Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-August-2013 at 6:58AM
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote occupant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-August-2013 at 9:12AM
Yes, that's what I had to do to put a PMGR starter on my sedan. I used this diagram:

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote papadeath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-August-2013 at 7:48AM
I have seen dual solenoid setups... Is there a benefit to this?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GranTorinoSport Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-August-2013 at 11:42AM
I am not sure there would be any benefit to a dual solenoid setup. You are not really load sharing or otherwise cutting down the strain on one or the other solenoid. It might only be beneficial from a cable management perspective, meaning you could possibly keep existing batter cables.

I am to understand that factory 460 cars would have still had the starter and firewall mounted solenoid, but modern BB Ford starters have an integral solenoid.

I am not as worried about this, as I am planning to buy new battery cables anyway. I was curious what others have done, but it seems many have just worked with existing cable systems, etc to achieve those means if they are using a newer style starter.

I believe a traditional setup for this would be to have the positive cable go all the way to the starter and then the axillary power cable go from the starter to wherever.

My intention was to have a custom cable made up which would be a 1/0 positive from battery post to starter power terminal. This same cable will also have a 4 Ga wire coming out of the batter post terminal which would go to a fender mounted terminal block, which would be the power distribution for main (non starter related) power.

Custom Battery Cables can do just that. Those cables cost much more, but I have a set on my F-250, and I really like them.
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