Well I tried searching for the old thread but "Big" and "3" are not allowed in the search so it was an epic fail.

I remember reading it but dont remember any specifics.

Please remind me!

 

Basically what your doing is getting rid of the stock wiring from the alt, engine ground, and battery ground. So what you want to do is get some nice gauge wiring, I used 0awg, but 2 or 4 is good too, I think. There is a cable connected to your alt, I know with my car I had to remove the alt to get a 0awg on there easily. Then your going to either find the original engine ground and replace it, or attach a ground wire to the bolt on the alt and take it straight to the ground on the battery. Then your going to upgrade the ground from the battery to the body of the car.

For other members, if you don't want to do this you won't be getting all the current from your alt that it has to offer, and if your drawing more current than your amp is feeding to your battery, the batt will die. If your still intimidated by this, you have to at least upgrade the ground from the battery to the body, that tiny 8awg just will not do. All your amps current, and every other electrical device in your car has to go through that wire. While it is short, it is still way too small.

Benefits of upgrading your big three is you will be less susceptible to voltage drops from hard hitting bass, feed your battery with every amp the alt can, and reduce the stress on your alt marginally. It's been a while since I've done the big three myself so I may have missed something, but I think I got it all.

EDIT: Also this is very important, my car has an external voltage regulator. So check and see where your alt cable goes to, if it goes straight to the batt, then do the same with the new cable. If it goes to the fuse box, then leaves, you have to replace both the wire coming from the alt, and the one leaving the voltage regulator. I believe it's a voltage regulator anyways.

 

Thanks again!
I thought you had to fuse something....or maybe I am thinking of something else.

Well I got quite a bit of that 4 gauge wiring from free and shouldn't use much so I will do what I can with the rest for the big 3. And do I just use spade to connect them to the - terminal?

 

it would be alot easier to get a new battery terminal. theyre not very expensive and it makes the install look alot cleaner. partsexpress.com have them for like 6 bucks

 

You mean the ones w/ extra holes for additional wires? I had a Scosche one and it was a pos. I'll check into it though.

 

I never use spade terminals, and would only recommended using ring terminals especially for this. I don't know about cars but with an outboard if you disconnect the battery from the alt and engine you can fry or do serious damaged to the ECU or some other component, but I'm pretty sure its the ECU. Now there are protection units for that, so maybe they have the same on cars.

 

I pictured ring terminals but said spade! Oops.

Well now you are just making me worry. Did you mean that, as if they connections were to come lose while the vehicle was turned on b/c of using the spade terminals?

 

Found this and it has a bunch of other stuff.

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/...TID~73496~PN~1

 

Yeah that's exactly it, but I would not be surprised if cars have the same protection newer outboards have. But then I'm not sure, with boats you have a battery switch, so it was a problem with people switching batteries, or stupidly just turning the battery off with the motor running. Just use real battery type ring terminal, and a crimper that used with a hammer at the least. I usualy tin my wires before crimpng then solder it after crimping.

 

Hmmmm .... a few points/corrections: You don't have to remove any stock grounding straps, but with the upgraded grounding, you may remove any for aesthetic purposes. Technically, the more metal, the better the ground.

Also, you won't pull any more amperage from the alt by having big wires. You will simply have less resistance.

I would not recommend a big 3 smaller than 2 ga., but I've seen 6ga. kits on the market. The best method to figure out your wire gauge needs is to figure out your amperage requirements and consult the electrical wiring guides. Alt to battery and engine to chasis should be based on the max output of the alternator. The chasis to ground might need to be larger due to sound system needs.

.... in my case, the big 3 will be combined with a battery relocation to the trunk. The implications of this are that all power now has to travel through the chasis and the alt to batery lead got trippled in length. I pland to use all 1/0 ga. wire.