Battery cables

[booyaballer]

I'm replacing the battery cables on my 70 Dodge Challenger (360 crate engine). the current red wire to the starter is about 43" long but only says 100% copper on it. it also has an accessory lead wire (12") that goes to the solenoid. and the ground from starter to solenoid (34"). I'm not concerned with OEM so i'll either make my own or buy a generic one like this one from CI which is a 4gauge (red wire).

N343 - Universal 43

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the issue i have is there are no other markings that i can read on the cables and have no idea what gauge wire I need to use. does anyone know what gauge each of these cables needs to be or can recommend a resource?

a follow-up question is, I will eventually change to an American Autowire Classic Update Kit. any idea if i will need a different gauge wire for the positive terminal?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

If you look at the factory wiring diagram it will show the wire & list both the color & gauge of each wire ,
The red lead to the solinoid I believe is 10 ga
the brown wire you call a ground from the starter is not a ground , when the start relay closes using the yellow wire from the ign switch the start relay closes & send power to the solinoid on the starter which also closes & uses the batter cable to feed the starter , the brown wire I believe is also 10ga from the relay to the starter .
The ground battery cable also has a pigtail to the the firewall for a body ground .

 

[booyaballer]

I see it now. indeed it is a brown wire 12 gauge. it looked black from all the electrical tape gunk it had on it since it was wrapped up with the red cable.

is there a better option other than electrical tape for engine compartment wiring?

the diagrams show the color codes but is there a legend to decipher the rest of the numbers; for example "A1-6B-R"?

 

[Chryco Psycho]

The factory used electrical tape to wrap the harnesses but it has no glue on it it just used a single wrap of glued taped or banding at the ends to prevent it unwrapping , it is just heavy duty black vinyl tape & wrapped tight it holds very well without the gunk !
6B should be a 6ga wire -R is red in color
so the middle # is the wire ga & the last is the color code + tracer color if 2 colors are listed such as 16 - bk / yl
which would be a 16 ga wire black with yellow tracer which was used to the coil - terminal with electronic ign

 

[moparleo]

Electrical is most critical. Just get the correct, quality cables. Once and done. Quality once is less expensive than cheap 2-3 times.