Need help with re wiring please

[andrzej77ff]

I started my add a second battery project and to do it I am relocating the battery from the rear starboard locker to front starboard locker. It looks like the previous owner did alot of the wiring himself because the battery had 5 positive cables and 5 negative cables hooked up to it. I am not sure where to run all these wires but have some ideas. I am adding a perko switch with an ACR. So here's what I got so far:

1. Main positive and negative cables ran to the correct locker. This part looks easy I just have to connect them to th ACR, Perko and batteries.

2. I have 3 positive cables at the engine with plenty of length to double them back to the front locker. I can't seem to feed them back anymore because they are tied up in a wire loom and under the floorboard. Do I run them back and hook them up to the perko on the house battery side? I assume one of them runs to the main bus bar under the helm.

3. I have 3 negative cables at the engine. Can I splice these together and ground them on the engine block where the main negative cable is coming from since it is right there or do I run them back to the batteries also?

I know one set of cables powers the bilge pump but not sure about the other 2 sets again I assume 1 set power the bus bar. I also found 2 sets of cables that were clipped near the battery in the wire loom, they are all 10 guage.

[boatwakes]

The 3 positive cables you have left you will need to connect to the battery switch "common" side. This is distribution side when the battery switch is in either 1, 2 or all but no power is supplied when it's off. This is important because of safety reason number 1: if you get gasoline in your bilge, you will be able to shut down all electrical by turning off the switch. Only one cable from the positive post should go to the switch, everything else should be run (positive side) off the common side of the switch.
As for the grounds, use the waterproof heatshrink ring terminal ends with 3/8" ring on each wire and connect to the engine. That way, you'll never have to worry about corrosion affecting any of your ground wires. Good luck.

[andrzej77ff]

Alright thanks! That's about what I thought. I'll ground those remaining wires to the engine block. Then in the cabinet I'll set up a fused bus bar coming off the house side of the switch so I can attach those three positive cables and 2 amps. I'll probably setup a ground bus bar in the cabinet also so i can ground the 2 batteries 2 amps and ACR right there instead of running all those wires to the engine.