Vert battery relocation

[amish_rabbi]

so I know that removing the ballast in the back isn't really a good idea, but how about relocating the battery to the rear to take up the weights slack. I just like the cleaner look you can achieve in the engine bay with the relocation

[bastianshaw]

i say dont waste your time verts are too torsionally floppy for it to matter much get a strut bar

[mtech325]

I pulled the ballast in the trunk and it made the car a bit more "lively" in the rear. That being said do so at your own discretion. If you're looking to relocate the battery to the trunk, I advise checking out Cabriolet's threads as he did it to his car way back when. It certainly can clean up the engine bay with no battery up front, but if you're looking to improve the handling on the vert, do a strut bar, x-brace, and/or a hardtop. I personally felt the race skids x brace made the steering a fair amount sharper out of all three, but it was a BITCH to install (ran into fitment issues).

[hendrixvodu]

I don't see how this fellow doesn't think it worth it but it very much is I spent an hour at the junk yard and $25 for mine use all the parts from a coupe cable, cover, tie down, junction, ect I deleted the weight and replaced with the battery I had upfront looks very clean and I added an m3 covering too, I noticed absoluetly no change in handling characteristics. a strut bar is an awesome mod for the vert but for $25 you can't go wrong

[amish_rabbi]

excellent, I didn't want the handling change that comes from just removing the weight, and I really want to clean up the engine bay, so two birds one stone.

I'll be installing a x-brace and skid plate as well, but the battery relocation is 100% aesthetic for me. Just didn't want to make the handling worse to clean up the bay.

[e30vert]

Chatted with Cab about this very mod and the cable from the coupe that runs the lenght of the car ended up being just a bit too short. He had to splice more heavy gauge cable to the end of it to make it the entire run. He mentioned that if he had to do it all over again he would get the cable from a 5 series as it a bit longer and should fit without too much modification. Just FYI.

[amish_rabbi]

I'll probably just run all new stuff, I have easy access to high quality cable. How long of a cable do you need?

[StereoInstaller1]

its pretty long, I would guess 17' or so...I would get one out of an E39 myself

[jeffnhiscars]

I dont see mention of the fact that the Cabrio well is too narrow for the battery so the right way to do this is to splice in a new floor section with the larger well.

[decay]

so I know that removing the ballast in the back isn't really a good idea

threw that thing out and never looked back... no ill effects, but i do have a lot of tire.

[StereoInstaller1]

I dont see mention of the fact that the Cabrio well is too narrow for the battery so the right way to do this is to splice in a new floor section with the larger well.

I have done two myself and have seen several, perhaps there are 2 vert chassis? There are early E30s that are not notched, maybe verts had the same thing.

[jeffnhiscars]

I have done two myself and have seen several, perhaps there are 2 vert chassis? There are early E30s that are not notched, maybe verts had the same thing.

I sure don't know every body layout but my 84 318i and my 87 Cabrio have front batteries with no room in the rear well. Our 87 sedan has a rear a battery and the 89 Cabrio I sold had no room

[boy412]

This is pretty interesting to hear, as I've been wanting to do this as well (for purely aesthetic reasons). I have a cable already (from a junkyard) but if there is any question of it being too short then I'd probably just run new cable.

Also curious about the well in the trunk not being large enough to fit a battery? I'll admit I haven't taken a close look at mine and just assumed there would be room. If I had to splice in a different floor section I think I'd abandon this idea pretty quickly. :down:

[StereoInstaller1]

...and now I am wondering....in all those cases, the battery was supplied by the customer.

[boy412]

As in a non-standard size?