Hey all. My starter is ratcheting when I go to start my car. It only shows about 8 volts at the starter so Im guessing I'm not getting enough power lol. I have a red top Optima mounted in the trunk with just a 4ga. negative running up to ground at the block, and a 4ga positive running to the starter. Then from the starter it has the stock cables that run up to the engine bay where they have the stock terminal screws in line. Basically I moved the battery to the back of the car, hooked them up and left everything else alone. When I hook the battery up to the stock location under the hood with the terminal screws it starts fine and strong. Am I doing this incorrectly?

 

Wire sounds too small... I would think you would want 0 ga. Can also ground to chassis and reduce voltage drop through a long ground wire.

Trunk mounted battery

 

Hey thanks Inguneer, that makes sense. I'll go ahead and try some 0ga. and ground the battery with a much shorter cable.