After I was finished installing my pulley, I looked at my remote battery terminal that had been flopping around in the breeze ever since I had done my HAI and decided that it was time to do something about it. I had been thinking about making a bracket to mount it to the partition between the engine bay and the cavity where the brake reservoir lives, but since I had already cut up the bottom half of my stock airbox, I figured why not use as much ready-made technology as possible a hack up the top half too!

So if you’re not fond of doing things that keep you from returning to stock, turn away now, because this involves demolition!

The first step was figuring out what was possible—where the terminal box could be mounted, how the cables could be twisted/rerouted, and what would work well and look good without cutting into the drinking portion of the day (which of course starts earlier during the holidays).

After futzing around and throwing out the ridiculously complicated (milling machine) and overly simple (bailing wire) ideas, I decided to do the following

DISCONNECT THE BATTERY FIRST. Turn the terminal box 90 degrees anticlockwise (this requires disconnecting and minor twisting/manipulation of the two cables—I think they’re called the gazinta and gazouta, but not having my manual nearby I’m not sure). Cut the two wire ties that tie the black (gazouta) cable to its neighbor.
ATTACHMENT 1

Removal of the top screw that holds the partition together.
ATTACHMENT 2

Chop the original terminal mounting bracket out of the airbox lid along with plenty of extra material (see #4 below for how much you’ll need to end up with, the picture below shows a lot more cut out to the left than what is needed—I was playing it safe at this point). I used a Dremel with a cut-off wheel, but a hacksaw will work.
ATTACHMENT 3

 

Cut the backing plate to size. I started by trimming well outside of the stiffening ribs shown along the vertical edges in the 2nd picture below and then sanding up to the edge of the rib (if you look at the bracket side, the center rib lines up with the bracket, so go out two ribs from center on each side).
ATTACHMENTS 4 and 5

At this point, the whole assembly is a rectangle, but that will have to be modified slightly later on. The next step is to remove the rib that’s highlighted in white in attachment 5. This is done because the outside rib will butt up against the left edge of the partition when you mount it and removing the highlighted rib will allow the mounting plate to lay flat against the mounting surface (plus the outside rib will align the two pieces vertically). I used a bench grinder to remove most of the material, then a small sanding drum in a Dremel, then a sharp, stiff putty knife to scrape it flat. You could achieve the same result with any number of different methods. After you remove the rib it should look like this (the picture also shows a hole which will be drilled later, I’m trying to keep the number of images as low as possible):ATTACHMENT 6

 

The angle between the vertical and the horizontal (which runs under the seal/molding) is a little less than 90 degrees, so hold the plate in place to get an idea of how much should be trimmed. Whatever you used to cut the plate out originally will work, but I used a disc sander and just buzzed off a little at a time, checking it against the partition and molding often until it fits just right. Here’s a couple of pics with a ruler alongside to give you an idea of what size it should be at this point:
ATTACHMENTS 7 and 8

The next step is to locate and drill the top left mounting hole. Measuring from the bottom of the molding down, mine was 17mm, and from the left edge of the partition in it was 8mm. I’d recommend measuring yours as I’d imagine there could be some variance between cars. I drilled a 9/32” clearance hole and used the existing screw to mount the plate.
SEE ATTACHMENT 6 AGAIN

I drilled the second (top right) mounting hole with the plate mounted (or in situ if you’re a hoity-toity engineering goof) to avoid having to measure anything. Just center and leave enough surrounding material and you’ll be fine. I used a 5mm bolt, so I drilled a 13/64" clearance hole through both layers (the bolt I used was 15mm long). There’s nothing behind the partition here, so don’t worry about hitting anything unless you have one loooonnng drill bit! I had to remove my intercooler cover to allow room for my drill motor.
ATTACHMENT 9

 

These two mounting points provide plenty of strength to hold the terminal box in place (one could argue that this whole process isn’t even needed!), but I thought why not make it even stronger, especially if you were ever planning to hook a jumper cable to the terminal. This requires a pretty long bolt to make it work, so make sure it’s worth it to go to the extra trouble before you do this part—since I never throw anything away, and pick up stuff that other people would, I did have a (selection of) long enough bolt(s) to waste my time on this. So I scrounged a piece of plastic tubing and cut it to fit between the bottom right corner of the plate and the back of the partition. Mine was 72mm long, but again I recommend that you measure yours . . .. Then I drilled a ¼” hole in the bottom right corner of the plate, and drilled a corresponding hole in the back of the partition. Be careful here, you can run into a metal bracket if you over-penetrate when you drill this one! If you don’t have a long enough bit, you may have to mark the spot, then remove the plate and then drill the hole. Then it’s a simple matter of putting it all together (I used a 6 x 85mm bolt). It’s kind of fiddly getting the nut started on the back of the bolt, but you can do it. If you have any trouble, a shot of bourbon will settle your hands well, since we’re all done with power tools now. It should look like this:
ATTACHMENT 10

After it’s all bolted together, hook up the cables without installing the nut and clip the terminal box onto the bracket. Install the nut and tighten (hold the box tightly in your other hand while you do so, I don’t think the bracket is quite that strong). After it’s all in place it should look like this (the extra yellow wire is for my driving lights):
ATTACHMENT 11

Put two new wire ties on the black (gazouta) cable and its neighbor to keep everything tidy. Things should look like this (assuming you’ve hacked up the bottom of your airbox too!):
ATTACHMENT 12

Hook your battery back up and you’re all ready to go!

I hope this is clear, if it isn’t, let me know.

Thanks,

Joe

 

If I weren't in CA where there's a visual, I'd be in the garage doing this now!

Matt

 

Like Matt, being in CA changes how we think, and with that, what we do... My stock intake sits in a tied Safeway grocery bag with a 10/05 open date...

Again, nice work!

 

Nice job. But why not just leave the top on?