Where do people recommend getting the 4ga wire and roughly how many feet should I plan on buying? Can I substitute jumper cable wire assuming it's solid copper? Seems to be a better cost per foot.
Location: Somewhere in the Ford Galaxy
Posts: 123
My VIN: 1561
Where do people recommend getting the 4ga wire and roughly how many feet should I plan on buying? Can I substitute jumper cable wire assuming it's solid copper? Seems to be a better cost per foot.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
I used these guys for battery cable and large terminals.Originally Posted by todd1561
http://www.delcity.net/catalogdetails?item=5214205
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 4,740
My VIN: 02613
Club(s): (DCF)
I got mine here. Pretty sure I bought copper lugs from the same supplier. But it was a while ago now.
3.0L, automatic, carbureted
Posts: 77
I’d like to thank everyone here, I’ve just installed a 4 gauge ground bus on #3772. Thanks again for all the details and explanations!
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Location: Middleburg Heights, OH
Posts: 1,939
Glad I saw this bump, need to add something:
The alternator should also be included on this "bus". In car audio circles, it's called the "big three" upgrade -- grounds between 1) alternator, 2) battery, and 3) frame. With the ease of corrosion on the OEM frames, as well as the car's quite electrically insulated construction between compartments, this really needs to be emphasized more than it is now. Too many frames are being decimated from rust, and truth be told, channeling the entirety of the car's grounding through the frame is a contributing factor.
I would personally argue however that while this will definitely help, for the distance involved, 8 AWG is not going to matter much when placed next to the frame. 1/0 AWG or bust from front to back of car. Headlights and radiator fans alone are going to draw 8 AWG to its max or beyond even, I would be surprised if HVAC and radio don't combine to max out 4 AWG, then there's the fuel pump and clock and external lights and other lower-power devices and you're better off leaving capacity here. 2 AWG is not that much bigger than 4 AWG, and almost nobody carries it for that exact reason (it took me a month to source some myself actually).
Part of the point of the Big Three is to eliminate as much of the "stressful" load off of the frame as possible, not just to beef it up. This allows your frame to be the structural integrity of the car, not the electrical integrity that it was never designed to be. This means 1/0 AWG needs to go from battery to front of car also. It's an investment, yes, but it's a one-time. 8 AWG is seriously undersized for the distance involved and current required.
One last note: don't skimp on the wire branch points. I personally always recommend a proper solder joint these days (used to swear by crimping, but too many issues led me to change that), electrical tape around the branch and secure with heat shrink tubing. Always works wonders and looks quite professional
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
In stock wiring, the headlights run their ground through the connector at the washer bottle and back to the relay compartment with two 12 AWG wires. I don't know why they did not use the frame for ground like they did with the fans. I,m guessing they were planning on a headlight control or burned out bulb warning.
I rewired my car to use the frame for the headlight grounds. That reduced a lot of ground power back in the relay compartment. It also gives you two extra wires up front if you need power up there.
Last edited by Bitsyncmaster; 10-20-2017 at 05:24 AM.
Location: Orlando, Florida
Posts: 2,734
My VIN: 01643
Club(s): (DCF) (DCO) (DCUK)
The only way you're going to keep current from going through your frame is if you actually isolate the frame, which is very unlikely. On something like the alternator, this would only be possible if you mount the alternator using all non-conductive bushings and hardware. You can add a ground wire of whatever size you want, but since nearly all alternators ground through the housing, you're still going to have parallel paths between the wire and the mount. A simple resistance comparison would tell you proportionally how much current will go through each path. If you want to control corrosion on your frame, the best way is to keep your ground points as clean as possible (preferably covering them with dielectric grease every so often).
Location: Middleburg Heights, OH
Posts: 1,939
Fully eliminating power from the frame is not the goal, nor is avoiding corrosion. The goal is to allow the full car's current to utilize these ground wires if it so chooses, and to properly (or over-) size the wiring so that grounds are never restricted. With the sheer number of reports on bad grounds, I have been of the thought that an approach like this, which includes the alternator via an eyelet on the mounting bolt, is ideal ever since I learned about it. It beefs up the cars grounding system which time has shown to be problematic.
Most of this is parallel, but the rest is adding connection points that are often overlooked. That's what the "big three" is all about. It will assist in preventing corrosion, but this is not an answer to frame rust, nor will it ever be. It helps about as much as rising your frame off with a garden hose annually, let's be honest, which is to say yeah it can help, but there's far better uses of your time and energy if that's what you're looking to get out of it.
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 4,740
My VIN: 02613
Club(s): (DCF)
I'm no electrical genius, so can someone please explain to me how grounding the alternator via a cable is better than grounding the alternator via the engine? How does cable > engine in this instance? Thanks in advance.
3.0L, automatic, carbureted
Location: North GA
Posts: 6,176
Club(s): (SEDOC) (DCUK)
Think of killing an ant with an atomic bomb....
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