BATTERY
Relocation
As some of you may know, the original Shelby's had their battery located in the trunk.
With all the modifications I was doing in the engine compartment and all the miscellaneous
boxes, switches, gauges, valves, A/C, pumps, regulators and etc. I was adding, I figured
Shelby could use the extra room up front. Therefore, moving the battery to the trunk
seemed a logical and appropriate move.
First, I ordered a battery relocation kit from Delta Bay Mustang's This took awhile
to get here due to them being short a piece or two for the kit, but finally it arrived.
Kit # DB088 for $64.95 which included the box, LONG battery cable of #1
cable, a negative battery cable, tie down strap, and battery tray plus misc. small parts.
At the same time, I also decided it would be a good idea to have a real ON/OFF
switch for this whole system, so I purchased from Loper's Automotive a Heavy
Duty battery shut-off switch. I have had a real dilemma in deciding where to mount
it, the rear end, in the trunk, in the glove box, on the dash, or under the hood. I
initially thought I would mount it under the hood and so I made a bracket for this switch.
The switch I chose to use didn't come with a bracket to mount it, since it is designed
to be mounted through a panel (like on the rear of the car). So I had to make one.
I purchased some sheet aluminum from ACE Hardware and cut out the size I needed.
Put a bend in it for attached it to the fenderwell and then polished it with my Dremel
tool and some aluminum polish. Below are a couple photos of the bracket and
the fabrication process.
BUT, the best laid plans don't always work! I later found out that NHRA requires
that all cars with a battery mounted in the trunk also are required to have a shut-off
switch mounted on the exterior rear of the car. SO...I tossed the bracket! And
ended up mounting the switch on the rear of the car.
For a quality battery I chose the OPTIMA Spiralcel battery Model # 34/78 with cold
cranking amperes of 750. This battery normally sells for about $134 but I found a battery
store in Mesa on Country Club drive that sold me one for $120. (A nice guy!)
Optima batteries are available to purchase on-line from this place for $137.95 shipped
to your door for FREE. http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/
I chose the OPTIMA battery because it is a closed battery and is far less likely to
produce hydrogen gas smells, since it is mounted in the trunk, gases might filter back into
the drivers compartment. Besides, they are proven to last longer in our Arizona heat and
are 15 times more resistant to shock. You just never know when I might want to jump
my Shelby over a dozen cars or something ("Eleanor" or Bullitt type jump).
When it came time to run the BIG #1 positive cable from the rear of the car to the front,
I purchased some 5/8 heater hose to enclose the battery inside. This encasement ran from
the rear of the car to just behind the passenger side shock tower in the engine compartment,
just for added safety. (you can just see the end of the heater hose encasement and the new
large battery cable in the photo below).
In the photo on the above right you can also see my Nitros line running along side the battery
cable which is inside the heater hose. Both run up to the engine compartment.
Here you can see the finished job.
As you can see, now there is plenty of room up front where the battery used-to-be,
for adding all my new ignition and NOS electronics. Of course, I've now got some cleaning
up to do and a bit of touching up on the paint before adding those items.
To RETURN to the PREVIOUS PAGE hit your BACK BUTTON