Clearance between tranny and tranny well.

[Bobb]

I'd like to route the power cable for the starter away from the front. It seems like a long way to run a cable. How much clearance is there between the bell housing and underside of the transmission tunnel? With my engine out of the car (and in pieces) I have no way to tell. My goal is to run the cable around the bell housing and secured to it. It will route directly to the starter and shorten the cable a whole bunch.
Thanks bunches folks.

[Durango2k]

Get a thicker cable if in doubt, and forget the ultra-hot tunnel. If this cable‘s isolation is damaged, your car will go up in flames and end in ashes. This wire is non-fused, and the full amount of energy which is stored in the battery will be freed in seconds.

Carsten

[64etype]

I first tried routing it behind the engine following the same path as the vacuum line for the brake servo (3.8). It can be done, but I didn't like how it looked. Then I managed to snake it through the void for the W/S wipers and coolant tubes using of a couple of existing, but unused holes in the firewall. That required some fairly tight radius bends around those holes and the cable was laying loose in that void. After considering the potential fire hazard from chafing, I finally settled on the original factory routing.

[johnetype]

This is one occasion where Jaguar got it right. When you allow for how far forward the terminal is on a standard starter motor, going around the front with it's supply cable isn't too far and as others have said the route over the rear of the engine has disadvantages.

If you want to minimise the resistance between the battery and the starter motor then I suggest you take the other side of the battery straight to the flywheel bell housing by the starter motor rather than via the firewall and then an earth strap to the engine. That way the engine block - which uses the highest current - has the lowest resistance to the battery. You still need earth straps from the engine to the body but they are now taking a much lower current. Or, do as I do and have a cable from the battery to the firewall and also one to the flywheel bell housing.