That chafing was the exact problem that I had. I was able to purchase new cables and the negative cable included a new version of the frame that holds the exhaust hose that leads to the air cleaner box. The new version of the frame has a channeled bracket section that holds the negative cables together, then loops one cable down to the power steering pump bracket ground. This keeps it away from the positive cable, but you also have to replace the old positive cable bracket with a slightly smaller one (like the rest of the brackets that hold it across the crossmember). The only problem then is that the positive cable has a fair amount of slack to it coming up from the crossmember to the battery. We solved this by zip-tying the pos cable to one of the a/c lines that crosses that area.

Beth Mashburn
1989 Volvo 740 GL wagon 300,000-some-odd thousand and still going.