Battery Cable

[RJE]

Hi All,
In the process of fabricating my own vintage style battery, ground,etc. (3) cables. It appears the battery cable is a number 2 wire. Any ideas about the gauge of the other two cable. Also, the size of the inside diameter for the lugs.?
Thank you,
Ron E

[Duncan M]

I don't have the information you are asking for, but do have some pics of some TD positive ground parts that are not the right lengths for a TC. Many similarities, though, and one package does appear to indicate a #2. Note the ground cable is of the woven type and uninsulated. The negative (hot) cable is insulated and of the (common) copper strands sort. I had an original TC negative cable (unless someone changed it between late '49 and '53) that needed to go when I began a mechanical restoration last year. I was able to fabricate a replacement cable by cutting it off flush at the original screw down "hat" style battery terminal end. I then drilled out the strands of heavy copper wire in a vise on a drill press. I stripped off the black insulation of a matching new cable, wrapped the insulation to protect it, and bead blasted the copper to remove oxidation. It fit tightly into the original, drilled out "hat" so I fluxed and soldered it in, being very careful not to melt or distort the lead hat. The smaller hole on the neg hot cable is identical to the setup on an EXU TC, and a conical lead plugs in, and then goes directly to the EXU (vertical) power supply for the two (under bonnet) horns (just to the right of the voltage regulator). Don't know if that was unique to TC exu and TD's. Below are the pics of what some TD cables look like with similar "hat" ends. from this website at the bottom of their page: http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/mgtd_details_wiring.htm
and the pics:

[RJE]

Thank you. It appears that the battery cable is 2 gauge, and the others are 4 gauge..