Re: Beefy ground install (longish)

[Brad Sheridan <brads@mindspring.com>]

> I wasn't having any electical problems, but I decided I might as well
> tackle this project anyway since I keep hearing how bunk the grounds are in
> the 16v cars.  I went down to my fave car audio store, bought 10 Phoenix
> Gold 4ga ring terminals, 5ft of red cable, and about 10ft of black cable.
 
> First I redid the +12v cables from the alternator to the starter and
> starter to battery.  I decided the easiest way to do it would be to just
> add the 4ga cable to the stock 8ga cable.  I tied the new wire to the hoses
> running along the front of the block under the intake manifold, then down
> to the starter.  Since there wasn't a lot of room on that stud on the
> starter, I decided to replace the stock cable running from the starter to
> the battery with a new run of 4ga.
 
> Next I ran a ground from the alternator case to the negative terminal of
> the battery.  This was easy, I just ran it alongside the positive cable.
 
> The first ground I replaced ran from the cylinder head (near the cold start
> valve) to the tranny.  It took a while to find where this cable attached to
> the tranny...in the 16v cars it's almost impossible to see this bolt
> looking down from the top.  The best way to get to it is from underneath
> the car, reaching up from behind the trans.  This is also where the ground
> that runs up to the battery terminates.  On its way up to the negative
> terminal it attaches to the body; this point is also visible from under the
> car.  I didn't touch this ground for a couple reasons...
> 
> Bentley was absolutely no help, so all this was discovered by taking stuff
> apart and looking around.  It took me a long time to get this far (3 hours)
> and since I had run out of ring terminals and patience, I left this last
> ground as is; however since it wasn't long enough to reach the terminal on
> my new Optima I snipped it at the point where it emerges from underneath
> the airbox.
> 
> I didn't have any problems before starting all this work, so the payoff
> wasn't readily apparent.  I did notice that my voltmeter now shows more
> than 14v when the alternator is charging at max, which is more than it had
> ever shown before by about .5v.  All that 4 guage looks pretty trick under
> the hood too!  Still, I think I should probably add a ground from the body
> to the battery.
 
 
> If anyone can think of anything to add or correct, I'd sure appreciate it!
> It was late at night, and I was kinda making things up as I went along....
 
  Sounds like a pretty thorough rewiring job. The only thing I'd maybe add
is getting good battery terminals to handle the 4ga wire plus the other
wires, such as for the headlight relays, stereo, and whatever else. Also, it
helps to really do a thorough job when rewiring like this. When crimping on
these 4 gauge terminals, don't forget to solder after crimping. And make
sure to either heatshrink or use the cover that came with the connectors to
insulate the connectors from shorting out against anything else.

Brad
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