need to find roughte to battery

[groundstabber]

hi all mines a 55 plate connect but i got a problem i need to run a seperate battery lead from the battery to inside the cab to run my amateur radio equipmant but cant find one >has anyone done this as i need advice (plse help cheers)

[JJ Cobra]

hi all mines a 55 plate connect but i got a problem i need to run a seperate battery lead from the battery to inside the cab to run my amateur radio equipmant but cant find one >has anyone done this as i need advice (plse help cheers)

I think you want the British site at:

http://fordtransit.org/forum/index.php

We yanks don't know nothing about 55 plate connects or all those other great vans you chaps have over there.

[rlschow]

It took me some time to find a nice place to run a 4AWG wire through the firewall of my (American) Transit Connect, but I found it. There's a hole way down in the back with a rubber grommet and nothing running through it. It's maybe 5" right of center, and well below and back from where the bottom of the windshield meets the body. The grommet has kind of a nipple on it to seal the hole. I pulled the grommet out and drilled a 1/4" hole it so it would form a tight seal around my wire. From the engine side, I pushed an awl through the hole and the rubbery insulation mat on the inside the firewall so could find where it entered the footwell. It comes through about 3 inches above the bolts holding the accelerator pivot to the firewall. Some silicone spray on the wire helps it to slip through the grommet easily. The light blue wire in the middle of the photo is the wire I put in.

[ncranchero]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably be doing the same thing. :D

BTW, whats a 55 plate or a 57 plate? WTH is a plate?

Edited August 7, 2010 by ncranchero

[ncranchero]

Where are you going to mount your radio equipment? There's just no spare room in this thing. I'm looking at the package shelf overhead as a place to put a radio or two. I have to figure out how to get the wiring & antenna cables up there without looking too tacky.

[kn8a]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably be doing the same thing. :D

BTW, whats a 55 plate or a 57 plate? WTH is a plate?

Brits code the year of the manufacture of the car and which half of the year it was first registered in the license plates, which stay with the vehicle for the life of the car. Wikipedia has a great article at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_United_Kingdom#Year_identifiers

55 or 57 plates would translate to a 2005 or 2007 vehicle, first registered in the fall or winter.

I had a software contract once with the company that's behind Carfax, RL Polk, and did some VIN work for them....as well as being ex-GM and ex-EDS.

BTW, there's a really fun Brit site,

http://fordtransit.org

that has a Transit Connect forum that's amazing:

http://fordtransit.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=54

These guys have had the Connect for almost 10 years - you can almost see our trucks' futures by looking at it.

cheers, as they say.

[ncranchero]

I registered over there a couple of weeks ago but never got the confirmation e-mail. Maybe they didn't want the Yank! :angry:

Thanks for the plate info!

Have a mate from Scotland, was here stateside a while, now down under in Melbourne.

Cheers!

Edited August 17, 2010 by ncranchero