Spent a few hours working on the car yesterday. Previously, I had sufficiently completed the batter relocation so that the car ran but did not have time to modify the electric power steering wiring to move the 60 amp fuse to an independent run.

I referenced the video that @Ricky SE3P had done. Instead of using the ANL fuse he he used, I decided to go for a 60 amp MEGA style fuse. That style fuse is more common in marine, motorsports and OEM applications according to the googles and ais... Either style should work really.

Bought a Blue Sea Systems Mega 7721 fuse block and 2 Littelfuse 60 amp fuses.


Installed it here following Ricky's idea. Zip tied the EPS power wire to the wiring loom to keep it out of the way.


Re-used the stock wiring that goes between the battery, starter, fuse box. Trimmed it to fit. Trimmed the alternator wire too. Will eventually de-pin the blue/red wire and shorten that but didn't have a de-pinning tool. I still want to tie down the wire better alongside the block so it isn't flopping around but I'll get to that with phase 3 of this project. Yes, there's still more to do...


Shortened the EPS ground wire.


Shortened the engine to chassis ground wire too



My battery is dead again so I couldn't test this. Hopefully, I didn't screw up anywhere. Give me some feedback if I messed up or have any suggestions for improvement.

Phase 3 of this is:

1. Wire up a manual "Battery Disconnect" aka Kill Switch for NASA and SCCA racing. It currently has an electric kill switch which the tech inspector did not like. It needed to be rewired anyway given the battery relocation.
2. Re-route and shorten the power cable from the battery to the starter. I'm thinking of using a bulkhead connector where the wire will pass through the body but I would somehow need to drill a 1.25" hole in order to install that. We'll see.
3. Potentially ditch the Braille battery and get a LIFEPO4 lithium ion battery like the NOCO. If I get that, I will likely place it in the passenger footwell since it is so light.

I need to learn how to wire up the battery disconnect. There are a couple of threads on here that I read but couldn't really understand. It seemed like you had to wire the alternator to the battery disconnect switch.
I would also like to keep some power going to the ECU so that it is not loosing long/short term fuel trims. I read something about this but didn't fully understand it... Sigh...

Lots to learn... Share your knowledge if you have it. Thanks.

 

I have been summoned? (tagged)

I have ideas that could work, you can PM me your number or hit me up on IG to chat the ideas more easily. Im not extremely familiar with how you ran all your wiring as i have only glossed over that in this thread... but you can quickly get me up to speed and i will see if theres anything I could provide as helpful and functional.

 

Thanks, Rick. I think I figured out the battery wiring with some input from Golden Rotor Racing on the FB group. He had been running a 4 pole battery disconnect switch wired to the BR/R alternator wire. Over time, that killed the alternator. He switched to a wire on the Ignition relay in the fuse box. That is the approach that I'll probably take.



In other news, work was slow so I took a break and did a thing...

I needed to get to the junk in my trunk. However, battery is dead and out of the car now. Yeah, I can use the key but would get annoying during race weekends. So I took apart the rear trunk latch mechanism and replaced it with some cabled wire making it a manually activated latch. I must have saved a few ounces from this.

I also removed the cable and latch from the fuel filler since it broke. Will likely make a similar cable for the fuel door.





I also experimented cutting a bit more out of the driver rear door with my trusty angle grinder and some cutting wheels. Yeah, I was bored... This was a miserable job. Despite using an N95 mask, I found aluminum dust in my nostrils afterwards. Definitely not healthy! Use a respirator if you attempt this!


Just ordered a kill switch and now trying to decide what to do about a battery. I emailed Braille to check on warranty. We'll see what they say. An antigravity would be great but they are rather pricey and I don't want to spend that much at the moment.

Slow progress but some progress is better than no progress...

 

I use the large NOCO lithium battery. I also am going to pick up a TYCOOL brand lithium battery on amazon to try out, a couple people I know use them and like them. Granted not a renesis powered rx8, but the rotax engine requires a lot of umph to start as it also spins the transmission. I figure if they can stand the heat and vibration of a jet ski during racing, a race car should be cake.

 

Rotax eh, I used to race a kart with a Rotax engine.

Braille emailed me back regarding the warranty. They are sending me a new battery so the battery decision is done for now. Hopefully, I can keep this second battery alive longer. The warranty person has been very easy to work with. Great customer service.

 

Not quite THAT level of rotax, lol. It does feel like it has the torque of a kart engine off boost. Eventually I'll be allowed to make a thread about it.