How to beef up your alternator wire Options

[lagos]

The factory alternator to battery wire is pretty thin gauge. This could cause lower alternator output if you have a lot of accessories in your car. One solution to this problem is to add another fused wire from the alternator to the battery, as well as extra grounds from the negative battery to the chasis and the engine. This should help maximize the alternators performance and reduce the chance of dimming lights and other electrical issues.

Here is what I did...

I got some 8gauge power wire. Some people recommend using 4-0 gauge, but I think thats a bit of an overkill.



Then I got some copper ring terminals for 3bucks from pepboys. Crimped and soldered the connection and finished off with heat shrink tubing.



I also picked up a 60amp fuse and holder.





Wrapped up the wiring in black plastic insulation and electrical tape. Made sure to route the wire away from anything hot in the engine bay, and made the install look as OEM as possible. I didn't want some random blue wire standing out in the engine bay.




Connected the fused wire up to the positive battery terminal



And its all done..



This post has been edited by lagos: Dec 15, 2008 - 5:41 PM

[99GT]

My battery light came on. Both of my wires were cooked this weekend (wires thats goes onto the alternator. They were barely hanging on. One was totally off. I replaced the wires already, but its back to burnt crisp again.

I checked my alternator and is putting high .8 higher than normal when I took it into Checkers. Could my alternator be the reason by putting more output trying to charge the batter, causing heat, hence the cripsy wires?

I think it would be the alternator since I already replaced new wires. Am I correct?


my previous thread

Looks like I'll be doing the big three.

How much wire (feet) will I need to do the big three?

Should I get OEM Toyota Alternator? It's only a $10 difference from Oreilly, Autozone.

This post has been edited by 99GT: Dec 22, 2008 - 8:27 AM