Starter dragging and more dimmed lights after battery relocation

[mko]

Just finished the battery relocation and now the starter is dragging a bit. And the dash lights get more dimmed when I crank the starter.

Battery is almost a year old and its Walmart brand.

2 gauge wire from the trunk, two 4 gauge ground wires. one ground to the body in the trunk, the other one goes in the engine bay and its bolted to the trans.

Where should I upgrade? Ground wires or battery? I have 2 gauge ground wire that im not using and i think I will use it tomorrow for trunk ground

Any advice will be appreciated it!!

[galantlvr34]

i would probably say to upgrade the battery to a higher cold cranking amp one because of the length of the new battery cables.

[RedGalant2k1]

The battery ground doesn't need to go to the front. But at the least upgrade to 2ga ground, and run a distribution block to separate the ground wires. The transmission, starter, and alternator can be grounded independently of the battery (and each other) too.

[w/oarctic7g]

I relocated and used 2 gauge I cut the battery terminals off and tied directly to them using a splice kit made for household underground repair. The kit has a brass sleeve with setscrews to cinch down the wire and a nice heavy heat shrink sleeve that goes over it. I have had no troubles with it for about two years and I have a cheesy battery.

[mko]

Forgot to mention, I also have 200A ANL fuse and 250A circuit breaker right after the battery

And im waiting on a proper distribution block for the engine bay. Right now i just crimped some leads on the wires that used to go to the positive battery terminal, and bolted them together with the 2ga wire coming from the trunk

[w/oarctic7g]

Try bypassing the breaker and fuse temporarily and see if things change. My + wire goes to a main kill switch before going through firewall and no fuses or breakers.

[mko]

yeah I had a kill switch but i couldnt find it today.

Will try that

[eclipsh]

Did you clear the paint out from under where you're attaching your trunk ground? You can ditch the ground going to the front of the car. Resistance in a wire is proportional to length/area and the chassis has a whole lot more area than the wire does even if the resistance in steel is a bit higher than copper. You just need to make sure your ground in the trunk is good (upping it to the 2ga is a good idea). Likewise, make sure your grounds under the hood are clean and free of paint. You want clean metal to metal contact.

[Stewi]

I had this problem when I relocated my battery to the trunk. I added made 3 grounding cables for the engine bay. One from the trans to driver side strut tower where the factory ground went, another from the alternator to the side of the passenger side strut tower and another from the bolt that attaches the starter to the tranny, up to the strut tower.

[mko]

I didnt pay attention tho. I had the ground stud there for a while (for the amp) and I just undid the nut and slid the lead on it

[dknight3]

yo run the ground to one of the bolts on the rear strut!
works like a charm!

[RacerX4g64S]

I ran mine on the rear seat belt bolt make sure bare metal to Bare metal! Also check you voltage drop with a DMM (digital multi meter). With 2 ga wire there should be none!

When I installed my battery in the trunk and it did not have a good ground (intake mainfold to firewall) so i replaced that!

[mko]

I got it fixed today. The wire between the circuit breaker and the fuse didnt hold up very well which eventually led to the problem. replaced the wire and its fine now.

[mko]

No , it wasnt fixed. As I was cranking the car today the circuit breaker popped open. I went to close it and it broke WTF! I pulled some extra wire from the battery box and bolted the 2 ends together. Shit! It cranks better than ever