The Big 3....

Holy hell! Electro!!!

 

hey johnyy

You should have a thick wire from battery negative to engine at least but it might make it stronger with another ground engine to chasis. You have a weak point somewhere if your lights are dimming.

 

its kinda ironic that this thread was brough back because i got all 4 of my subs hooked up saturday and they just drained the bat so now i will be getting a semi batt tonight and putting that in. CC let us know how that ground works cause if it doees i am gonna just redo all my Big 3 with 0AWG.

 

I do have 1/0 ga. from neg, to engine and neg to chasis, very good grounds in fact but I just want to do the negative alternator to chasis as well cuz i read that this is the most important.

Jonny, i'll let you know how it goes. not sure when i can do it though. it get dark here really early and i hate working with just a flashlight.

 

invest into one of those big yellow light things.

 

well, i added the engine to chassis ground. Got better and more steady voltage but i STILL get a bit of dimming especially at full tilt... I guess i'm gonna need a HO alternator or an extra battery now. GRRRRRRRRRR... Well, i'll have to wait now. I don't have the money to do any of that. too many bills to pay for. lol

 

Johny what the hell is a big yellow light thing???

 

He means the lights that are on a long extension cord, I can't remember their exact name but they are really handy because you can hang them around your work and they are bright.

 

no not a trouble light but one of these. i use 2 of them to work on my car at night and also when we play some b ball or football at night. its like daylight!

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200309783_200309783

 

for the ground to the engine block you are using a 4 ga. wire from the negative terminal correct?

 

sup Dawgssssssssss weeeeeeee!!

the thicker the wire the better, less reisitance

 

May be a dumb question, but should the wire be regular electrical wire for this or speaker wire? Thanks

 

I may have missed this but I did not notice anything speaking of fuse boxes/computers, my 2006 Subaru Impreza goes straight to a fuse box and you can't really figure out were the wire goes once inside and splits off to the battery and some where else. Can you just leave the original wire since it's designed to pull/take only what it need, or would two wire off the alternator be bad to a battery?

 

ok so bigger wire for positive on alternator

on negitave side of battery connect it to the chassis

on negitave side of battery connect it to engine block

im not getting the grounding..i know this is a dumb question but if you ground out the negative then does it just allow more room for the positive or something like that?im just checking myself

 

Just think and remember as this, The battery has 3 main wires Power 2 Grounds. Trace the wires and see where they go, One ground will always go to a part inside the motor compartment to chassis(which is always a bad ground since they put it over painted metal). The other ground wire will run along with other wires and connect some where on your motor or transmission. And last the power wire which comes from your alternator to your battery(with age of vehicle it will go to a fuse control box or computer to fuse control box)

 

0/1/2/4 gauge as almost all basic cars use OEM 8-10ga wire. SO upgrade to bigger wire, and remember ever company makes different wire, for example DB link 4ga holds 1500+ strains of copper, were as Stinger 4ga hold 1400+, Schoche is 1140+ Tsumi is 1700+ and etc... IE more copper more power flow""

 

Something that helps with everything

I notice this is not posted around and being in the BIG 3 upgrade this could come in handy for some people so they may get a understand on why lights may dim after the big 3 adn what ever else.

NOw for the great rules of Direct Current, if you have your Amp and Voltage numbers, you can get your over all Watts that is created, so let's take an example.

My car atm""

90Ax12V=1080W (max overall)
MA HK1000D at 14.4v @ 1x4ohms 480W. SO....
1080W-480W=600W let over

if your have other values and not one than use basic algebra and change the formula. W/A=Volts and etc.

remember some vehicles take more power than others depending on the car, like car's with HO LED lights, heated leather seats, etc blah blah those car draw more power over all. Were as a 1962 GTO needs power for radio, dash, lights, running the motor that's it lol.