I am putting my battery in the trunk of my 66 malibu. am installing 1g welding cable for battery cables. OK, there are many wiring questions which i have but the main one for now is what to do with the wire which came from the horn relay and connects to the POS battery terminal. I was thinking instead of running it all the way to the trunk, just route it to the starter post which will then go to the battery POS. same thing right?

I am putting my battery in the trunk of my 66 malibu. am installing 1g welding cable for battery cables. OK, there are many wiring questions which i have but the main one for now is what to do with the wire which came from the horn relay and connects to the POS battery terminal. I was thinking instead of running it all the way to the trunk, just route it to the starter post which will then go to the battery POS. same thing right?
Yes, just run it to the starter post. Put a 14g fusible link by the starter post to protect the cars wiring in case of short. There was one originally between the battery and the junction block.

ok, cool. just making sure but it seemed to make sense. so i should use 14g wire or something thicker. i was gonna use 10g

A 14g fusible link is a short piece ( maybe 5 or 6in) of special wire. You can buy one at Napa, antozone ect...) It is made to burn up in case of major short. It protects all of the cars wiring from the battery. Yes use at least 10g or maybe even 8g depending on how much load the cars pulling. Use the fusible link right at the starter BAT post, then splice into 10 or 8g wire. Also protect the wires with some kind of heat resistant tubing near the starter as heat could cause a voltage drop. When splicing the fusible link to the 10 or 8g wire, make sure to crimp and solder the wires together as this wire carrys the entire load for the car, a poor connection here can give you headaches later.

There was one originally between the battery and the junction block.

Just for general information. Chevrolet didn't use fusible links until 67. Definitly add a fusible link.

Just something that I ran across that may be worth mentioning,
I think that the fusible link wire size is supposed to be 2 sizes smaller than the wire it is feeding/protecting. So if your terminal block has 10ga, then you would use a 14 ga fusible link (2 sizes smaller).

Undee or Finally will correct me if I am wrong.

ok ok. that was very helpful and makes good sense. thanks for all the input...next im pondering about installing a msd pro billet distributor to replace the hei, msd says its a good idea...thanks

Just something that I ran across that may be worth mentioning,
I think that the fusible link wire size is supposed to be 2 sizes smaller than the wire it is feeding/protecting. So if your terminal block has 10ga, then you would use a 14 ga fusible link (2 sizes smaller).

Undee or Finally will correct me if I am wrong. Correct, at least 2 sizes smaller , which is 4 numbers bigger. There is nothing wrong with using a 8g wire and a 14g fusible link. The fusible link is just the bottle neck in the circuit. The main feed for the horn relay is now going to be much longer than original, a 8g might help reduce voltage drop, but a lot of it will depend on the rest of the car and its intended usage. Jim, thanks for the tip on the belts, at least it stayed on for the last 2 passes.

Jim, thanks for the tip on the belts, at least it stayed on for the last 2 passes.


Cool, I hope they stay put when you run that 10.xxx run also.