Battery Cables Revisited

[Jason Edge]

If you go to our Help Page and scroll down and click on Battery: Original Battery and Battery Cable Article in Sept 2013 Ne... you will see I had found a pretty close match for the original spring ring terminal battery cables, sourced from Heartbeat City for 1969 Camaros. While they were close and worked great in my 1964 Coupe de Ville 'Dino', there were a few differences from the factory cables.  Over the years I have studied the differences and looked for a better solution.   I will be providing a detailed writeup in an upcoming newsletter and will post as a new Help Page article but thought I was share a bit here on the website, especially since we got in to a pretty deep discussion on this in our last Zoom Chapter Meet-Up. (Another reason to join the Chapter!)


One of the biggest differences between the Heartbeat City and factory cables, was the fact the HC positive cable secondary alternator wire was a smaller 14 gauge instead of the thicker 10 gauge wire used from the factory.  This has never set well with me, even though I have never had any issues with the 14 gauge wire and apparently many other car brands like Camaro had the smaller wire back in the day, I always wanted to find someone that could make basically the same cable with a 10 gauge wire ... but there was nothing off the shelf you could order.  A solution presented itself when Chapter member Dwight Hargrove told me had had M&H Electric Fabricators custom make similar cables with 10 gauge wire.  Dwight's positive cable had the large wire but he had it made with 30" length, which was not quite long enough to reach the alternator. This meant he had to splice another 10 gauge wire with connector onto this wire. I basically took it a step further and had them make it 36" long which ended up being the perfect length. 

I had 2 sets of cables made and have installed one on Dino and will sell the other set. (Tentatively sold to Chapter Member).

Cable Length Specs for Comparison
Here are some more exacting specs on lengths for comparison:

Factory Cables Per 1965 Master Parts Book
Negative Cable:  1959 to 1964, 1965-75: 28 1/4" long, part # 298 1749
Positive Cable:    1963: 49 1/2" long, part # 298 1748
Positive Cable:    1964, 1965-75: 52 1/2" long, part # 298 3647

Earlier Heartbeat City Cables:
Positive Cable:   53 ¾” long  (EGP1145, also Lectric Limited 18820)
Negative Cable: 29 ½” long (EGP1151)

M&H Cables
Positive Cable:   53” long
Negative Cable: 31 ½” long

Below are some pictures and a few notes below of the M&H Fabricators sourced cables:  

Positive Cable
- Red Arrow – the alternator wire is now the correct 10 gauge, and 36” long with a connector. It is also black, The 14 gauge wire from Heartbeat City (HC) was brown and I had to spray with black vinyl paint to get the correct color:
- Blue Arrow -  The braided wire loom where it feeds by the exhaust to the starter is now black, instead of brown as supplied by HC.
- Purple Arrow – there is a rubber sleeve covering the connector end. This was not included in Heartbeat City cables.

Negative Cable
- Green Arrow – the HC cable had a small 14 gauge secondary ground wire, I had to snip off. This cable does not have that connection, so it looks correct.
- Orange Arrow – Like with HC cable, I have transferred the original ground strap that attached to the radiator support. This is the only alteration I have to make but something that is needed to have the correct factory look and grounding to radiator support.
- Purple Sleeve – Again, there is a rubber sleeve that gives a more finished appearance.

Below are some closeups of the new Positive Cable:

Pictures of New Negative Cable:

 

Here are some pictures of the new cables installed on 'Dino':

[Jason Edge]

I have added the cable length charts spec to the original posting above and swapped in a better picture showing the negative cable and ground strap to firewall.  I will also add this to our Help Page.

[Timothy Coy]

I bought battery cables a long time ago and just got around to installing them. The radiator support ground strap is missing from the negative cable (not built in). Is a separate grounding strap that NAPA sells safe to use?

[Jason Edge]

That ground strap at bottom of the factory negative cable to radiator support supplies a solid ground for items like the voltage regulator and horn relay that relay on radiator support for ground. Many newer or alternate ground battery cables have an auxiliary ground wire originating up top at the battery terminal. If your cable has this you can just run it to radiator support and attach with screw.  You can alternately run a direct ground wire from frame to radiator support, or a wire off the battery side terminal. A short wire from frame as it goes under radiator support to radiator support would be inconspicuous.