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2013 Chevrolet Suburban
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Which terminal on the starter do I use for the auxillary battery connection

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Old Dec 16, 2010 | 1:20 PM
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Default Which terminal on the starter do I use for the auxillary battery connection

So I'm going to do the auxiliary battery like the police tahoes. I'm supposedly going to have to put the + cable of the aux. batt. at the same point on the starter where the main batt. connects to it. Im not very knowledgeable about these things, but I have found a diagram of the starter and I'm hoping someone can tell me which terminal to use, as I have yet had a chance to trace the main batt pos. cable to the starter b/c I had no idea where the starter was to begin with! lol! So thanks in advance!

There seems to be 3 places for possible connection of the aux. batt. positive. The 3 I'm speaking of are sort of near the center of the pic, about 10 o'clock position. I'm clueless as to which ones to use. If I had the parts on me, I could make a better judgement. Thanks!

The 2nd pic is one of the actual cables. And judging by the size of the positive cable termination, I might have to hook it up to the smallest of the three possible connections on the starter.
Attached Thumbnails Which terminal on the starter do I use for the auxillary battery connection-untitled.jpg   Which terminal on the starter do I use for the auxillary battery connection-photo1.jpg  

Last edited by Typerod; Dec 16, 2010 at 1:28 PM. Reason: describing where the terminals are.
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Old Dec 16, 2010 | 2:23 PM
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if u search, there are lots of threads on this; also ALT + Print Screen will grab JUST the active window vs your whole screen
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Old Dec 16, 2010 | 2:54 PM
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Originally Posted by SabrToothSqrl
if u search, there are lots of threads on this; also ALT + Print Screen will grab JUST the active window vs your whole screen
For some reason, when I was trying to screen cap from the virtual desktop it wouldnt let me paste it. So I had to work around it.
Threads I've searched on no one talks about hooking up the police setup. everyone else is using isolators.
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Old Dec 16, 2010 | 3:00 PM
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It would seem to me that you would connect it to where the primary battery connects....
Is that cable long enough to reach the second battery tray and the starter?
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Old Dec 16, 2010 | 8:42 PM
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Not sure if he doesn't know where the starter is if he should be messing w/ connecting a 12V cable as he might wind up welding something.

The answer is to hook it to the terminal on the solenoid that has the 12V cable from the primary battery connected to it.

Not sure why you can't connect it to the positive terminal on the primary battery tho. Either way the batteries will be connected in parallel and w/o an isolator, will both run down together.
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Old Dec 16, 2010 | 9:36 PM
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Originally Posted by 73shark
Not sure if he doesn't know where the starter is if he should be messing w/ connecting a 12V cable as he might wind up welding something.

The answer is to hook it to the terminal on the solenoid that has the 12V cable from the primary battery connected to it.

Not sure why you can't connect it to the positive terminal on the primary battery tho. Either way the batteries will be connected in parallel and w/o an isolator, will both run down together.
Well the GM factory cables are only so long, and its not going to reach the main batt. This is how the police tahoes are. And another gentlemen on another forum swears up and down by this method, and he has 5 GM suv/trucks with this method and he has never had an issue. but batts. will charge together as well run down. As long as they receive charge. They should be good to go.
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Old Dec 16, 2010 | 11:33 PM
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I haven't paid any attention but if the starter is still on the psgr side as previous iterations of the SBC, then the cable in the pic doesn't appear long enuf to reach but guess you're about to find out. Good luck.
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Old Dec 17, 2010 | 7:53 AM
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I'm just curious, but if you're wanting to have an extra battery, why not separate them with a solenoid so that you can control what the auxiliary battery does? You are doing a good thing by adding more battery, but what you're really doing is just making one really big one.
A well thought out setup will give you that same option, as well as being able to keep the batteries isolated so that if you do wind up with a dead battery, you can jump start yourself. I use this type of setup in my rock crawler. The main battery runs everything but the winches. The auxiliary battery runs the winches only. If I run the main dead with lights or whatever, I have a backup.

Just sayin'
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Old Jan 7, 2011 | 11:28 AM
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Originally Posted by Yellow Yota
I'm just curious, but if you're wanting to have an extra battery, why not separate them with a solenoid so that you can control what the auxiliary battery does? You are doing a good thing by adding more battery, but what you're really doing is just making one really big one.
A well thought out setup will give you that same option, as well as being able to keep the batteries isolated so that if you do wind up with a dead battery, you can jump start yourself. I use this type of setup in my rock crawler. The main battery runs everything but the winches. The auxiliary battery runs the winches only. If I run the main dead with lights or whatever, I have a backup.

Just sayin'
So I have my two yellow tops in now. I used those cables in the pic in my first post of this thread, so far so good. Car starts up like a charm, of course it will b/c it has two fresh batteries, right? lol! but Yota, it was a **** to get to that starter. I was wanting to do the isolator but it wouldve been too much trouble, well too much trouble for me to get the extra cables cut and crimped with the batt terminals. Then spend more money on the isolator kit, i was going to get the one from painless wiring. Then I would have to figure out how to connect the main batt to the isolator and still utilize the factory connection. The yellow top with the side posts and top posts (34/78) would have allowed easy connections, but the top posts are to far in from the edge of the battery to use the stock battery connections. I have 2 yellow top (d35) in the vehicle now, and they only have top posts. so in the end, it was b/c im too lazy! lol! maybe in the future, but i agree isolator is the way to go. i'll just have to be extra cautious w/o the isolator. happy new year to all!
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