Morning all,
Below is a picture I see online quite a bit of a w-30 motor. The battery cables appear to be red for the positive and black for the negative. Also the + runs over the top of the intake? (I've currently got two blue that are ready for replacement). Would this be the factory set up? Also any other cable details would be appreciated. Seems pretty straight forward 1 GA wire.

 

over the intake is the manual shift configuration. Auto cars ran along the drivers fender well.

 

In early-1970s W-30s, the positive was red with a spring-ring clamp. The negative was black with a conventional, bolted clamp.

The positive went over the valve cover if you had manual transmission. The positive went over the inner fender if you had automatic.

 

Thank you much!!!
Are the spring clamp versions reliable in terms of staying attached?

 

Yes the clamps work good. I also like them, as I don't drive my car much, and I disconnect the cable, between drives, so it is easy to do.

 

Excellent. Thanks.
Just checking them out in a few catalogs. NOT CHEAP! LOL

 

Is the heavy one gauge wire necessary / required/referred? I'm not seeing anything quite that heavy in my local parts store.

 

Yes - to carry the cranking amps the distance from the battery to the starter, you need the large gauge wire or it will overheat/melt/catch fire.

 

I found some 2 gauge. Is that enough?

 

Here is a chart I found online showing gauge and amps with maximum recommended cable lengths, minimizing voltage drop. You can see that the 2 gauge only handles 300 amps at 4.9 feet. Your positive cable is 55” (?) somewhere around there. 2 gauge wouldn’t handle the amp draw without potentially damaging other electrical components.

 

Are we talking about the cold cranking amps of my battery? Which I believe is 720 or 730.. because according to that chart even the one gauge that was in there would only handle 300 at 6 ft. Mine is 50".

 

Bigger is better, BUT the factory only used 4ga. Not sure about the rear mount W-30 battery installs, though. While not concours OEM style, batterycablesusa.com will make custom cables to length in just about any gauge you want. These are 1ga.

 

I'm not trunk mounting. Sorry if I gave that impression. Agreed most cars I see are 4 GA or smaller. I'm going with the 2. Thank all for the help as always!

 

2 GA will be fine. I run 2 GA welding cable whenever I make custom cables even when using a rear mounted battery.

 

I only mentioned the rear battery because it would be the only situation the factory might have used bigger than 4ga.

 

A couple of suggestions:

Get a copy of the assembly manual for your year, it shows the battery cable routings for the various configurations.

Reproduction Wiring Harnesses for America's Muscle Cars
M&H fabricators also makes the correct battery cables.

I use the spring clamps, they work very well for me and stay on tight.

 

I agree. Everything I have bought from them is OEM-quality.

 

I have been waiting for an M&H spring ring clamp battery cable for almost a year.
The story I got was there was some issue with getting the metal/lead to pour the spring rings.

 

I went with Midway Muscle Cars cables. I used 69 cables so I had both spring clamps and I routed the positive cable over the valve cover to clear my headers.
https://midwaymusclecar.com/