How 2: Create Your Own Earthing Kit

[AlanD]

Ive noticed these on more and more Race/Track prepped starlets coming in through Trevor of late so thought there must be good reason for them.

Upon inspection of my starlet the only earth I discovered was one wire going from the battery down onto the frame and one little strap onto the front slam bar!

Upon consulting a few NI Ep-masters, I heard more and more tales of poor earths causing poor running, so thought id use the kitten as a guinea pig and make my own kit.

All that is really required can be bought on the high street @ Halfords, though the more astute may wish to purchase the components on Ebay, and assemble the required components.

Materials

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1x Battery '-' terminal with ideally 8awg connections, 4 or more will do the job!

5-6m of 8awg oxygen free copper

4 or more 8awg ring crimps

Method

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measure out runs of cable from the battery to the points you wish to earth, ensure you leave plenty of slack to locate around obstacles etc. cut back the insulation to approx 15mm of bare cable with a good pair of wire snips.

Next crimp on a ring terminal onto ONE end of each earth wire. Then fasten the bare end into the negative terminal.

It will leave you with the following:

Using a 10mm spanner undo the positive battery terminal. Excercise GREAT CARE not to touch the spanner against anything metal in the bay whilst doing this.

Remove the terminal. The battery will now look like this:

Next remove the negative terminal, again using the 10mm spanner to undo the fastening nut. The battery will then look like the one pictured below.

Still using the 10mm spanner, remove the bolt from the slam bar, in front of the battery as pictured below:

the last bolt to remove is located to the left of the battery deep down into the bay, as pictured below:

I found I needed to use the long extension bar in my socket set to reach the bolt:

The bolt is a 14mm one, I found to get a good grip on it, I needed to use a 6 sided socket, to reduce the risk of rounding out what is probably a very soft bolt.

you can now see what little earths the shell to the battery. Looks a bit pants doesnt it!

Place the terminal onto the battery and get ready to make some quick progress!

For the first new earthing point, I used the right hand suspension turret. To undo the nut, use a 13mm spanner, place a crimp underneath, and fasten the nut again using the 13mm spanner:

next up is the big bolt that came from deep down into the bay, beside the battery tray. Place a crimped end over the bolt.

then fasten it back down using the 14mm socket on extension. Take care when fastening not to overtighten this bolt. it would be very awkward to extract should you shear the head!

I noted the 1500cc monster had one of the earth teminals fastened to the rocker. To do the same you will require a 10mm spanner. Remove the 10mm nut, place a crimped end underneath and refasten.

next up, replace the last stock earth point on the slam bar, using another crimped end and fasten down using a 10mm spanner

The next stage is optional.

I wanted to go to town with my kit, fastening earth straps to all areas of the engine bay, the majority of aftermarket earth battery terminals have 4 points for 8awg. I chose to expand upon this by making an extension from the terminal to the far left hand of the bay.

To do this I used a 4 awg crimp, and fastened 2 lengths of cable to the crimp by baring back 15mm of cable, placing it inside the crimp, and crimping it by using a lump hammer and a chisel to crimp what is an awkward size to fasten.

be sure to insulate the bare wire using good insulating tape.

Next up, I tidied the cables by cable tieing the loose cabling to the charge air pipes and along the strut brace.

I decided to add another 4 terminals by using a distribution block from Halfords... Cost? £10... Ebay? £3.99...

I fastened the distribution block to the left hand side of the strut brace.

I ran the wire that I just fastened to the back of the strut brace to the distribution block.

next up?

well! thats upto you! you can run how ever many wires off to where ever you like in the engine bay, well except to the positive wiring!!! lol

I hope this helps people perform what is a cheap, but effective modification!

[Paseo15psi]

I give you an "A" for effort. I would make a few suggestions though.

1. Change the routing of some of those cables. I see quite a few that may rub through the insulation from vibration in their current locations. I also see others that will pick up noise from things like the distributor.

2. Run a 2-0 AWG wire for your final ground to chassis. Running a ground the same size or slightly bigger than all the others can cause high current to burn that final ground wire. It won't short since it's a ground, but it will give you troubles like increased engine noise and pretty much make all your hard work worthless.

3. I would also recommend upgrading your alternator-to-battery cable. Upgrading to a 2-0 AWG wire will severely help out your charging system overall.

Good job though.