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What gauge wire from the battery?

L

LeFrog

Joined Mar 2005
3K Posts | 3+
Mesa, AZ
I am overhauling my electrical circuit as I realized many of the connectors are a bit dirty. Better be sure than sorry.

The larger connectors: 2 red ones from the solenoid, a black one to the battery are a bit corroded. The red one to the starter is actually cut in part. I went to the auto parts store but they did not seem to have 8-gauge wiring, although they had the 8-gauge connectors.

I intend to run to Home Depot tomorrow morning. Is 8-gauge the best for these connectors? Can 10 or 6-gauge work? It seems that 10-gauge will be too small and could end up breaking, while 6-gauge will induce too much resistance. Am I right?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
If it will fit within the confines of the work area you cannot go too big with regard to wire size.

Best Regards,
Dale
 
04%20650%20starter%20&%20bracket


Here's a shot of an new 04 650 showing the negative ground wire going to the starter bracket. When I put the 650 starter and bracket on my 470 I also ordered a negative battery cable. When I did the installation I used both grounds . The original that grounds to the chain roller and added the 04 cable that grounds to the starter bracket. If you try this also order/get the hex head bolts for the starter bracket (4) as trying to use your 01 allen bolts will be difficult.
 
A common practice on hotrods involves using 6 volt battery cables instead of 12 volt cables because they are twice the diameter. (as voltage goes down, amperage goes up). As already mentioned, you cannot go too big, bigger is better. And you cannot have too many ground wires, more is better. If you can get rid of all unwanted resistance, the electrons will fly like birdies! Remember, the bigger the gauge number, the smaller the wire size. Don't ever go smaller than what was used from the factory.

Volvonut
 
Does the bigger is better theorem apply equally to the positive cable and negative cable?
 
The amount of current leaving the battery is equal to the current comming back to it on the neg. So... yes, the pos. is just as important as the neg. Make 'em both big!

Volvonut
 
I have to stop listening to the Pep Boys guys and more to the real specialists.

Thanks a lot.

By the way where is the solenoid in this picture? On my 01 the starter solenoid is right on top of the bracket... you have to remove it to remove the starter.

By the way, the battery is really not the easiest thing to access on these bikes. I had to remove a 13 nut shock-side using two wrenches.

I also had to grind a 10 size flat wrench with a dremmel so it could fit around the bottom nut that holds the pos on the starter because of the connector being too large.

I am thinking about replacing the smaller connectors eventually. The current ones look a bit corroded as well. Not blaming anyone ok? It's a used bike. Got what I paid for.
 
LeFrog said:
By the way where is the solenoid in this picture? On my 01 the starter solenoid is right on top of the bracket... you have to remove it to remove the starter.
Click to expand...

On top of the battery
 
FYI and humor, gold is not the best conductor of electricity as quoted in the Gorilla Cable link, silver is. Gold is preferred sometimes because it will not corrode and silver will. All air bag terminals used in cars are gold plated for this reason. Just kinda funny. The other link looks like an awsome product, as they sell the entire system. You can make any size you want. This, however would cost more than a new bike! :lol:

Volvonut
 
Well, somebody could get that hardware and start a little eBay business, advertising on such Websites as TT...
 
No I am going to keep the copper wires. 6-gauge it will be. I have to give Jason $20 each time I use the B word.
 
Something else you might want to check out is if you have ever installed a high powered amp. in your car and had to buy the wires and connecters. Couldn`t you go to Circut City or another place that sells power amps and such and find everything you need? Another way would be if you have a set of old jumper cables, most are either 6 or 4 gauge and last is wielding cable, which is cheaper than the wires you would buy elsewhere. How bad is the cable cut? Might be able to fix it. Keep it simple.
 
I looked into it and high power speaker wire is around 10 gauge. Too tiny.

I made two cables already (ground) and not that I could I made the pos as well but I only had black wire and I am a bit of a perfectionist so I will call around and find some nice red 6 gauge battery cable.
 
What I was talking about is the + and - wires for a amp. They make them all the way to 2 gauge and that is a big wire 8O . Usually comes in 10,8,6,4 and 2 gauge. Can usually get the connecters there to.
 
Thanks. I will look into it. The 4-6 gauge connectors I got are waaay big.

I think it should be possible to use the smaller 8-gauge connectors with the 6-gauge wire.
 

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