Reviving an old thread.

I'm laying out the wires for a 5.0 swap and battery relocation.  Originally I had planned to follow James' diagram, because the idea of not having a hot 1/0 wire all the time seemed like a good one.
If I understand the pictures correctly, the 1/0 wire travels from the Trunk Solenoid's Start lug to the front side of the front solenoid, where the starter, alternator, fan, and lights are also connected, e.g. the postive hot side.  The goal fo the wire of only hot on start.
However, the alternator is also connected to the same lug.  So isn't the wire hot when the car is running because the alternator is feeding it, thus negating the benefit of having it switched in the first place?  Maybe I'm misunderstanding the To Battery indicator in the picture.
Thanks.

Thanks James,
Your description is how I read the diagram, but when I looked at the pictures, I guess I got confused since I saw the To Battery on the input side of your front solenoid and the only matching wire I saw on the back solenoid picture looked to be the output wire used for the starter.  The red wire that states To Battery looks much larger than 8 guage in the pic and I don't see a corresponding pic from the rear view.
Did you run two large guage wires back to front, one for the starter and one for the fan, lights, etc.?
If I'm interpretting your drawing correctly and want to duplicate your hard work, I need to run a 1/0 from back solenoid output to starter, a 4g from back solenoid input to front solenoid input and an 8g from back solenoid input to under dash efi power block.  If the alternator already connects to the input side of the front solenoid, what does the separate 8g wire do?
Is the picture showing the To Starter on the input side of the front Solenoid old?
Randy

 

Thanks James,
I think my issue was that I was looking at the below picture, which likely is from your initial install, before you modified things to remove the constant hot.  Now that I see you've eliminated the front solenoid it makes more sense.  I saw it mentioned in one of the other threads on the mini starter & trunk battery pages.  Trying to match that with your rear image is what was making me think the wire listed as to battery would always be hot when the engine is running.  Now I believe I have it.


 

I probaly have what most would call an over kill with my rear battery set up ,But here it is ran three I think 2 gauge cables front to back one main power one starter and one ground ,Ground is probaly not needed but it is there and split and tied to body in rear of car.I use a painless soleniod that is made to stay on that supplies power to car,It has a toggle switch in car that controls it I need to flip that switch or the car is dead ,I use a mega fuse on that circuit ,The starter is not fused could figure how to protect that feed due to current draw of starter but it does use a solenoid in the back so it is only active when switch is in start position.The only other fuse is on the altenator and also on all control  wiring that I ran for the coils on solenoids as stated this most likely over kill but I feel that it is safe and if you hide the toggle switch car is harder to start.