battery earth cable

[garyinwestoz]

am am wondering does it matter if the battery earth cable is not attached directly to the block eaarth cable liekt eh OEM on is.
p/n 12 42 1 286 746


would it be okay to just use a separate braided cable until a new one is acquired?

[Mike W.]

I'm a little unclear on what exactly you intend to do. The negative/ground from the battery to the block has to carry a lot of current on start. So whatever you do, it has to be able to carry a bunch of current, at least briefly. IIRC E28s just ran a little negative cable to the body, then a ground strap or two between the body and the block, so direct isn't needed, but a good sized cable/strap is. It appears E28s used a 10, metric cross section I think, for the positive cable. I'm sure you could get away with less than that, but larger than the 4 that runs from the alternator.