Battery Earth Cable Amp Rating?

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 7:58 pm

The battery to gearbox negative cable on my ATR is frayed at the gearbox and needs replacing. The battery terminal clamp has two cables, one to the chassis and one to the gearbox. The Honda part is £68+vat, that is if it is available.

There are a few people on eBay that make up single cables for circa £6/7, so im getting a price on making one up. I also need a engine to chassis cable for the Civic so i will get that made up too.

There is a choice of 110, 170 and 240amp, but i have absolutely no idea what i should be getting so that it doesn't melt and set fire to the car. After a bit (a lot) of googling, i see that 6AWG welding cable is often used in favour of audio cable and this is rated around 175amp, compared to 8AWG audio cable which has a 60amp rating.

Because of this, i was thinking of going for the 170A cable, but i'm still not convinced this be the right one. Does anyone know what amp cable i should be looking at, or should i be going for the 240A?

Cheers all.

Post by **Gayno** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:00 pm

For the cable to starter, I'd get as big as possible to be safe. Those starters don't half draw a lot of current!

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:31 pm

It battery to chassis and gearbox that I'm replacing.

Post by **Gayno** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:33 pm

Ah yes, of course, well the starter ground onto the gearbox, so that's the beefy one!

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:38 pm

Reckon I should go for the 240a then?

Post by **Gayno** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:41 pm

There's no reason not to, that I can see!

K30DPC · Post by **K30DPC** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 10:04 pm

In this case bigger is better. With high current any resistance make a different and thicker cable=bigger resistance. I went for 0 gauge for all three connection (battery->gearbox, body->gearbox, body->engine). I had some spare bits after audio instalation. IMHO engine starts quicker. I'm also planning to do the same size wires between alternator->fusebox, battery->fusebox.

But first battery will go to the boot