Mini battery and ground wire questions

[bobber bill]

I got one of those mini batteries that are the size of a cigarette pack. This thing has tiny little wires coming out of it which raises some questions:

1. Should I solder in some heavier gauge wire after the 20A fuse on the red wire?

2. What about the black wire? How should I ground the battery and the rest of the bike's components? Do I ground the battery to the frame? and then ground all of the individual components to the frame as well?

3. Or should I run one thicker continuous ground wire directly from the battery to the rest of the components?

I'll be running a Pamco ignition and PMA conversion. Headlight and tail/brake light only

Any info is appreciated. If you have pictures, even better! Thanks

 

[alfredo]

I would run some 14g wire to the red and the black. Then run the 20a on the 14g wire. Also, you will want to ground to the battery negative, but make sure that you run a wire that is a true ground (to the frame, etc) from the negative.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[xjwmx]

One typical way of joining a real thin wire to a thicker wire would be to use a circuit board. Radio Shack probably still sells perf boards. You can put a thin lead through it and connect it to a thick lead that runs on off of the board. Enlarge a hole so it'll accept the thicker wire. The board is just to strain relief the thin lead. You could attach the circuit board to the battery or the box the battery goes in.


You could also mount some terminals somewhere and connect the thin wires from the battery to them and run the thick wires off the screw terminals on it.

 

[bobber bill]

Awesome! Thanks to both of you. The battery wires are connected to a RC toy type plug, so I will get the corresponding plug and run the 14g from there. The black negative will go to the frame for grounding and the red positive will get a 20A fuse etc.

I like the idea of using screw terminals, so I may go that route with other connections

This is how everything is arranged now

top view of electronics box

mini battery in its padded cradle

other side with fuse panel & regulator/rectifier

electronics panel that slides into the cylinder

 

[Cafe-Dave]

Very, very nice. Keeping the battery as close as possible to the R/R is the best way to do it. Short Leads, R/R and Battery at close to the same temperature. It helps.

 

[XSLeo]

If you have been on this site very long and have been paying attention, you would know why what your doing is wrong.
I'll tell you just in case, the reg/rec gets hot, it needs a good air flow to keep from overheating and burning out.
The reg/rec needs to be out in the open air.
Leo

 

[bobber bill]

That's why I drilled a bunch of holes right under the reg/rec. I'll probably add a bunch more this week

 

[AussieHard]

Could you insulate the wires with silicon sealant on the R?R side and cut some vent slots in the tank (make a grill), or drill a series of holes?? This may be an option to get enough ventilation and keeping the tidy design and work you have done???

 

[AussieHard]

Beat me to my post!