Danny, there are a few things here to consider. First, electricity has to be assumed to be infinitely fast. With this assumption, it doesn't matter that the ground is in 1 cord like a 1/0ga. wire or if it is split up into (8) 8ga. wires. The other thing to consider is that the old wire was chosen because it can carry the OEM current of the car. Last, the wres don't really determine the current, nor does the resistance in them. Wires are for connections only, the resistance should always be negligible compared to the system. Increased stability via better grounding is a by-product. The larger wires ALLOW more current, but do not dictate that current.

 

I'm not sure how what I was saying about the larger wires being any different than that(EDIT: Lol of course I know that Arron, wires are not a source of energy...). I have no idea what the rating is for each gauge at what length, and the stock alt is 70 or 80 amps. The ground isn't really a problem since it is so short, but I think the long run of 8 awg to the battery is not enough. The tiny 8awg from the battery to the frame is definitely not enough. I noticed a significant increase in voltage stability after upgrading my big three, and so have lot of other people so it is not just a myth that stock wiring is not large enough.

Also Arron if you have say 5 8awg wires instead of one 1/0awg, the 8 awgs must all be the same length to function like that or the current wouldn't be even across them all. I'm no electrical engineer but that's how it was explained to me.

 

According to this chart (http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm), the 8AWG wire is barely adequate to carry the current.

Aaron, is wiring kind of like duct sizing? Too big and you won't have enough static pressure, too big of wire and you get a large(r) voltage drop as the length increases?

I too have had benefits from an unequal length eBay grounding kit... but not enough for me to warrant installing it on this car.

 

Again I'm not sure about this, but I don't think you can have a wire that is too large. Electricity travels over the surface not so much through it. Hence why multi core wire has a much lower resitance than single core wire used in 120v.

 

Well I was going to do quite a bit to the audio setup like moving the capacitor. But ran into quite a few problems.

1st, no one sells that glow plug thing that allows you to charge your cap so it wont arc. I was told to get a 1.2k resistor but never told about the ohms or watts.
2nd, told to just get a 12v dome light which will do the same thing, bought a bulb and the cheapest socket but it was a stupid round base so it only had one wire.
3rd, I forgot that the fuse holder I have is 8 gauge...ugh

Anyways, I got some copper round spades like you showed me t00fatt and they worked pretty well! All I did was add an extra 4 gauge ground wire from the neg. battery terminal to the bolt that is connected to the headlight. I sanded the paint away for a better connection. Then I put an actual round spade (wire just used to be jammed under the connector on the post)

At first the voltage was jumping all over the place which was unusual, then if I turn on my HID's while driving the voltage drops to 13 and stays there, but if i turn them on right when i start the car it will stay at 14v. Then later, i turned them off and back on while driving and they stayed @ 14v. Sometimes when I stop it drops down to 12v and then goes to 14v if i put it @ neutral.

Need more time to test it out!

 

You need a 1k+ resistor. 1k = 1000Ω and it needs to be a 1W or 5W (doubt you'll find a 5W at radio shack).

 

Yeah I did see some 1K that were 1 watts but they were the standard small resistors. I figured I would need the resistor that is a rectangular shape.

 

Hmm... maybe it is 5W then... I have a cap too and I was looking for the big white rectangular ceramic resistors..

 

^ Yeah RadioShack has those but now I forget which ones.

The guy who works @ a audio specialty shop told me you can use a 12v dome light.

I just shutter everytime I hook the battery back up and see the smoke + massive spark

 

I'm pretty stoned so bare with me. I'm not at all familiar with your car. I think you chose a bad ground spot, why didn't you go to the stock ground? Is that where you have your HIDs grounded as well? And did you leave the stock ground connected? Voltage jumping all over the place is not good or normal. How much is it jumping?