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Mk3 Battery Cable swap

Obviously you need the positive and negative cables from a mk3 2.0. im not sure if vr6 cables will work. diesel might. so to be safe im going to recomend you get cables from a mk3 2.0. also im not sure if there is a difference between ac and non ac so again ill reccomend you get cables from an ac mk3 if your mk2 is ac and non ac if yours is non ac.

 

here is the mk3 negative. the body and engine cables are seperate. on mk2 the negative runs to the body ground under the battery and from that to the motor.

here is the positive cables. they are two seperate cables one from battery to starter and the other front starter to alternator. the smaller wire you see is the exciter wire. you wont need the one from the mk3. youll be reusing the one on your mk2 because the ends on the mk3 one are different then the mk2 ends and the starter end is about 6" short.

now that you have the cables lets get to work.

 

disconnect and remove the battery. then start removing cables. there will be one or two negative and two positive wires coming from the body harness and connecting to the battery terminal end. you need to remove these without breaking them. on mine it was as easy as removing the clamping bolt.

 

id start with the negative.

 

under battery

yellow dot is motor ground. once you have those disconnected you should be able to remove the negative wires and set them aside.

the positive is kinda tricky. only because of how the starter-alternator wire is routed.

 

youll want to disconnect the exciter wire. be careful not to break it. mine was very snug. in this pic you can see the two harness wires mentioned earlier.

now heres where youll want a camera. take pictures of how the positives are routed. off the battery it goes over the trans to the starter. the other one goes over the starter and behind the the oil filter and up to the alternator. you may have to remove the oil filter to get that on out. at the alternator remove both nuts you see in the second pic. and remove the cable. be careful not to damage the exciter wire. you will need it later.

Now you should have three cables out. one with an extra smaller wire.

now would be a good time to get the negatives in. i found it easier to loosly connect the body and motor wires and then install the battery and connect the terminal to the battery. thighten down the motor ground and figure out where the best way to route the body ground. the wire for the body ground will be a little long. you can either trim it shorter or do like i did and bunch it up. after you get it situated where you want it remove the battery and tighten down the body ground and connect the one harness ground to the unused bolt like so.

so now that the negative is done you can start on the positive.

 

first thing you need to do is inspect the battery to starter wire for any cracks in the sheething and glue/tape them to seal them. after thats done go ahead and put the battery to starter wire in routing it the same way the old wire was. just go ahead and set it on the terminal on the starter. dont forget the two harness wires you took off of the old wire. they go on the new just like you did with the negative, one on each bolt.

 

now heres why we are swapping exciter wires. you can see the mk2 exciter wire plug next to the frame rain and the mk3 plug in my hand.

now the tricky part is putting the mk2 exciter wire with the mk3 starter-alternator wire. you dont want to have it loose where it can get worn or damaged. so heres how i did it.

 

first things first cut the outer tape/tubing off of both old and new wires. be careful not to damage either exciter wire or the positive. if you do damage the positive you can wrap a quick piece of electrical tape around it or some super glue in the split just like you did with the other positive.

 

now youll want to attach the starter end of the starter-alternator wire to the starter and lay it as close to the way the old one was routed. then plug in the old exciter wire and lay it on the positive like so.

youll want to put the battery back in and connect the positive but not the negative for now. make sure the exciter wire is not tight. and wrap a piece of tape around both wires about two inches from the end like so.

remove the starter-alternator wire with the exciter wire and tape from the tape you just put on until about two inches from the other end covering both wires. if you want to do it like i did i added an extra layer of corrugated plastic tubing and another layer of electrical tape. it was hard to get it fit where the old wire was but it is possible.

 

1st pic is starter end and second is alternator end.

after you get the wires taped together you can go ahead and install it the same way the original one was. reconnect everything and fire it up.

youll notice in the above pic the blue exciter isnt connected. it should be connected back to where it was removed from unless your like me and the previous owner adds wire. then you just add a new ring terminal and connect it.

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