Great advice. The RAC guy also made the point that the earth must be bare shiny metal to bare metal with no grease or petroleum gel between,this would hold moisture in the joint. Copper grease can be put over the top to prevent water getting in to the joint. My next job will be to add new earth straps all round and install extras as pointed out on this thread. Not going to be caught out again.

while you are doing this can you take a photo log please ? so I can do the same . Also what and where you buy from as this may be very useful for other member as well as me ..

http://www.ecoustics.com/electronics/forum/car-audio/255554.html

https://jlaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204374080-The-Big-3-Wiring-Upgrade

Right. Went to local Halfords and they don't do a negative earth strap to the battery, they sell the clamp and a separate cable with double ended crimps for bolts. Not what I wanted as l wanted to replace like for like. Guy in the shop said to find an auto electrician to make one up. Ok. Next step was VW dealership. Surprise, surprise they stopped making them in 2012 and won't be held in stock buy other Sinclare dealers. Tried VW heritage and the one for the mk2 golf is a different design and is £11 odd plus postage which I feel is a bit rich. Story so far. Will now source a local auto electrician and see what they have to offer?

Brilliant links from steveo3002 mentioning the big 3, well worth a read. Just sums up what this thread is all about. Will now try a local auto electrician.

no aftermarket ones will match the original if you are fussy.

i picked apart the original batt clamp and reused it with some thicker wire

Good advice Steven3002. Just spoke to a local auto electrical company called Fast Parts which is about 5 miles away and they will do any combinations of cabling with which ever cable you need. Example, he said a length of 1 foot, yes they are not metric yet, with a negative battery terminal to a ring on the other end would be £7. Double ring ended 2 foot about the same £7. Maximum lengths were 3 foot. Laughed a lot when he said they only do feet measurements when I asked for 20cms. Going away for a few days this week to a Christmas market in Budapest so will be purchasing next week. Will let you know how it goes.

so youre going to do battery neg , the one near the alternator and another from the gearbox mount to the coil area ?

while you wont enjoy fitting it...dare i say the battery pos wont be in much better condition , id do that too plus matching terminals for fussyness , then the alternator one while your under and its all replaced then

not quiet right but these arent a bad match for vw ones ...better than the brass or gold plated ones anyway

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POSITIVE-AND-NEGATIVE-12V-BATTERY-TERMINAL-CLAMPS-WITH-3-BOLT-ON-CONNECTIONS-/291558181030?hash=item43e238c8a6:m:m3Y0WrBAvkupEI2NQ61LQjw

That link I put up yesterday do them in different lengths

Your right, doing the positive at the same time would make sense then they would be matching and yes I am that fussy. Will give it more time and energy next week after a short break. Thanks again for the input from all.

Disappointed. This is what was available from the local motor factors. Universal fit. Gold coloured battery connection is poor and the bolt is too large for the ancillaries. For £7.40 the cable is good but a poor quality battery end. Also the direction of the battery connection is the wrong way around and could get caught in the bonnet hinge. I may take my earth strap and this cable to an auto electrician and ask them to put the cable on to my original battery connector.

mate life shouldnt be so hard

ebay and almost every car shop will have leads , i doubt an electricians will have time to unpick your orig vw one but worth an ask i guesss

otherwise the ebay terminals i linked to are "similar" I've spend ages searching for a normal looking one and never found it , they're all them brass ones for classics or gold plated ones for gansters and vio

Going to my local scrap yard and pick up a set of positive and negative battery clamps and take off the old cable myself. Then get some new higher grade cable and find someone to connect it up, this will keep the original look but have a better performance.

Edited 25 November, 201510 yr by c.w.pritchard

Ok. Just back from the local scrap yard. Quarried a few more bits off the old breadvan. Now have spare battery clamps to work with. What I intend doing now is to find someone who can take the old earth cable off the clamp and fit the new shortened cable on to it maintaining the authentic look. Could be a bit of a task finding someone. I also picked up an earth strap that went from the coil pack to the engine mount, I'll fix it to my car between the lambda sensor earth and the bulkhead bolt as seen in the photo. Hopefully I'll never again have the issue of no start due to earthing problem. I'll post an image of the renewed earth strap if I can get it done.

you want big fat cables like the ones i linked to , then if a main earth goes its man enough to keep the car going

Ok. I'll see if I can pick one up the right size. Thanks.

The earth from coil to engine mount and one from bonnet to inner wing what size is the ring terminal please ? 6 or 8mm..

6mm i think

need one on the front drivers mount too....all fat ones cant be too big

Oh ok I missed that one so i will check the length on that one , but the other two are 300mm in length .. Thank you ..

Ok. Forgot the one from the bonnet to the inner wing. Will look at that too. Thanks

bonnet to inner wing isnt an earth as such...wont effect how it runs

Really what the hell is it for then ? may as well leave it as is ?

The bonnet earthing strap is there to reduce RF radiation from the ignition system causing radio interference

yeah take it off /leave it it doesnt do anything with a modern radio