New Battery Cables Recommendations

[hatchback_wes]

Hi guys, I'm going to be getting a new battery for my 86 hatch. Along with that I might as well replace the cables too. Do you guys have any recommendations for some new ones? I'm going to replace both positive and negative cables. Should I just stick with oem?

[Sandwich]

"Big 3" Ground Wires

The smaller gauge the better, 4 gauge seems nice, 6 ok, 8 is OEM. I want to do this too, but for all the grounds and the alternator wire, If you're doing the battery ones then I'd recommend to all grounds since you're ordering the same stuff and people think it makes a huge difference. Let us know how you get on.

[ShiRen]

Make a better engine to body ground. Doesn't matter what you use or really where it goes, but that one from your valve cover to the core support is a joke.

[hatchback_wes]

Thanks for the response guys! What's wrong with the current ground points?

[Sandwich]

The OEM 8 gauge is understandable from Honda for mass manufacture, but refreshing with lower gauges will definitely perform better.

Through age and corrosion the connections can get iffy and can cause issues with warm starts I believe, people also believe it can improve performance but im not sure on that. My alternator to battery wire is getting really hot these days at the terminal due to age, which is why I'm planning on replacing that, smaller (and older) wires will have more resistance and this one in particular (as well as battery ones) carry quite high voltage. All in all a good maintenance job really.

[hatchback_wes]

interesting, i'll look to upgrade to that gauge of wire then. For my positive cable, there is a wire that runs to the starter, and another that runs to the fuse box. When I was looking at kits on rockauto the wire that wouild be for the fuse box is this yellow capped thin wire like this:

does that look right?

[Dr_Snooz]

Those pre-made cables from the auto parts stores are perfectly serviceable and will work well. They will also be sloppy, ugly and look cheap. They'll be too long and not route nicely. I'm a lot happier with the ones I made. I took pics of the process and meant to do a How-To, but I failed. I'll put it back on my to-do list.

Here's the finished cables. Compare them to the quality of what you're looking at.

[hatchback_wes]

Just got it done! My neighbor suggested to use silicon around the exposed copper since I forgot to buy heat shrink smh.

I cant seem to be able to upload my pic of it

[Dr_Snooz]

Upload your pic to a hosting service first, then link to it in your thread.