Lancia Beta Forum
March 29, 2024, 09:25:21 AM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Looking for Lancia Beta parts: www.lanciabetaparts.co.uk
 
   Home   Help Contact Admin Search Calendar Gallery Articles Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Any benefit to uprating the battery earth and starter motor/solenoid cables?  (Read 3040 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
mangocrazy
Legendary Member
******
Offline Offline

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Posts: 1347


Graham Stewart


« on: November 13, 2015, 11:32:07 PM »

Besides betas I spend a lot of time tinkering on motorbikes (mainly Italian) and there is quite a thriving market in people supplying uprated battery earth and starter motor cables. These cables have markedly higher current capacity than the rather marginal OE ones and help to get big V-twins spinning over quickly and starting much more easily, as the full current potential is delivered straight away.

Would there be any benefit on doing something similar with a Beta, or are the OE cables correctly sized? Knowing Italian electrics of the 70s and 80s I'd be rather surprised if this were so...
Logged

1980 Lancia Beta Spider 2000 (S2FL)
2002 VW Transporter T4
2017 KTM Duke 690R
2008 Aprilia SL1000 Falco
1992 Ducati 888 SP3
1988 Honda VFR750F
1980 Yamaha RD350LC
HFStuart
Legendary Member
******
Offline Offline

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Posts: 1906



« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2015, 10:56:58 AM »

Provided the connections are in good order I'd say they were pretty well sized. Other that when I forget to fit one I've never had any problems  - they don't even get that hot.
Logged
peteracs
Administrator
Legendary Member
******
Offline Offline

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Posts: 3822


Peter Stokes


« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2015, 02:47:49 PM »

I would have thought it was pretty easy to check by putting a meter across the cable and measure the volts drop when starting, especially if you disconnect the ignition so it does not start and hence you get a good few seconds of churning. You can also then do the 'is it getting warm' test, but the volts drop will let you know if there is an issue, it should be be pretty much 0 volts across the cable, all the volts should be across the starter in a perfect world.

I must say that looking at the cables I would be surprised if they were a big issue, I would look at connections before I worried about the cables tbh.

Peter
Logged

Beta Spyder S2 pre F/L 1600
Beta HPE S2 pre F/L 1600
mangocrazy
Legendary Member
******
Offline Offline

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Posts: 1347


Graham Stewart


« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2015, 04:32:04 PM »

Thanks chaps. It wasn't really in connection with any observed problem, more a case of 'I wonder if it's the same as with the bikes'? Having said that, the cables are now at least 35 years old on my car, and one would assume that oxidation has reduced the cable's electrical capacity (or raised its resistance, to be more correct) to some degree. But there are probably many more pressing things to worry about than that, to be honest.
Logged

1980 Lancia Beta Spider 2000 (S2FL)
2002 VW Transporter T4
2017 KTM Duke 690R
2008 Aprilia SL1000 Falco
1992 Ducati 888 SP3
1988 Honda VFR750F
1980 Yamaha RD350LC
peteracs
Administrator
Legendary Member
******
Offline Offline

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Posts: 3822


Peter Stokes


« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2015, 05:35:49 PM »

Hi

The last point about corrosion is valid and is about the connection between the cable and connector as well as what it connects to. Measuring the voltage drop across the cable and connectors should let you know of any issues

Peter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Logged

Beta Spyder S2 pre F/L 1600
Beta HPE S2 pre F/L 1600
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines
SMFAds for Free Forums
Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!