Shortening the Motor Cable

The main motor cable was far too long - I would have had to wrap it around the engine compartment 2 or 3 times - so I asked Azure Dynamics about it, and they had instructions on shortening it. It is pretty straightforward. First, you remove the shrink wrap and/or electrical tape from the end of the cable:


Then you strip off the heat shrink as far down as you need it (make the cable longer than you expect - much easier to cut it shorter later if you need, hard to stretch it longer...):


Trim the grounding braid, again, a little longer than you expect:


And then, label the individual wires below the point where you will cut them. Cut the "C" cable 1.5 inches longer than the "B" cable, which is 1.5 inches longer than the "A" cable. Crimp on 2-gauge lugs, and you're nearly done:


The last step, not shown, is to heat shrink over any extra grounding braid, and tape up the 3-phase cables as you found them originally. With this mod, I have a little slack from the motor to the controller, but not so much that it will be dragging on the ground. I removed about 4 feet of cable.