Positive terminal

[Tom Hunsinger]

At the last event I had a couple of people say that there was no requirement for the positive terminal of the battery to be insulated. I was told from the first time I teched a car that the positive terminal needed to be insulated on all cars. I looked it up in the rules and found out that for cars with the battery in the stock location there is no requirement for the insulation. However, if the battery has been moved from the stock location you are required to have an insulated positive terminal. More imporatantly, if the batttery has been relocated and is a wet cell battery, it is required to be in a marine-type case, see below:

15) Any wet-cell battery moved from the manufacturer’s original
location shall be in a non-conductive marine-type container
or equivalent, and the hot terminal shall be insulated. All
batteries (on-board power supplies) shall be attached securely
to the frame or chassis structure independent of the
marine-type container. NOTE: This will allow the use of gel
cell or dry cell (AGM) batteries without a non-conductive
marine-type container where applicable.

Tech will now recommend insulation for batteries in the stock location. Tech will continue to be very picky about loose batteries. No amount of insulation will protect a driver while a battery is bouncing around somewhere in the car.

[Donnie]

yes wet cell (regular type batteries) need to be in a battery box and vented outside the passenger compartment

dry cell batteries can be mounted without a box and do not need to be vented