Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

It does not charge well even with 4 gauge from the alt to kill switch, what are you guys doin to get these things to charge right?! Cuz if I hook the stock wire back up, it charges fine, but that's not legal cuz it won't shut the car off, any help would be appreciated, thanks!!!

MADMAN

iTrader: (4)

I use 2 ga. and I have the alternator modified to put out 140 amps.

Bitemark46

Devon- You're slow j/k. I saw you at DHII. I assumed you checked the battery ground and its a good connection. The stock wire charges through the dist box upfront correct? What guage is that one? Like Madman said I use a 2 gauge wire as well. Well first I should ask can you draw a diagram on how yours is setup? This is how mine is wired.... -Mark

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

I was wonderin if I should step it up to 2 ga. I appreciate the info, as for the alternator, what does it put out stock, and how did you modify it?

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

What's up dude!!!!

You should've come over and said hi, I didn't see ur car, or don't think I did, not sure, I was havin so much fun whoopin up on Blackwolf that I may have just not been payin attention, haaha!!!

Anyways, I got a 1/0 gauge goin from the battery to one terminal on the kill switch and on the other terminal the alternator and a 1/0 gauge goin to the front and bolted it to where the stock connection was, so the wire goin to the front should be plenty big enough. I'm gonna give the 2ga. a try on the alternator wire and see if it does any better. As for the ground, I reground it today to make sure that it's good, it's bolted right to the frame with a 2 ga. wire off the battery, so that should be good, right?

kp

iTrader: (34)

My stock alternator wouldnt keep up at all when I put the battery in the back even with a 2ga alt wire running to the switch. I had my alternator rebuilt to a 145 amp by a local place and it made a huge difference in charging. You have to remember these cars draw a lot of current, mine with the big fuel pump, BS3, EWP, fan running and parking lights on was drawing over 80 amps and the stock 90 amp alternator puts out like 70 amps when hot (less at idle) so do the math..

ls2formula

iTrader: (7)

As easy as your car pulls the wheels you should put your batt. back up front.

2002/Black/SS

iTrader: (3)

hey loudmouth, my battery is also relocated to the back but i havent started the car up so i dont know if it has problems, if u decided to rebuild the alt let me now and ill bring mine to the same place as u maybe well get a better deal

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

What kind of a place do I take it too to do the alternator rebuild, that sounds like my best bet, and then i'll put the 2 ga wire in with it when I put it back in? It was really bad with the ewp, I ended up sellin it, cuz I would have issues with havin to put a jump box on to get her started in the lanes before almost every pass, it was rediculous!

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

Nah, then i'd have to readjust everything in my suspension, and you don't want weight in the front, from what i've heard, anything you remove from the front is like double of what it weighs, dunno if that's true, but that's what i've heard.

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

Will do dude, i'm gonna wait for a reply from kp, cuz I don't even know what kind of a place to bring it too that does that, ya know.

Bitemark46

I think thats your problem. I have my wire coming from the alternator to one side of the terminal on the same terminal side of the switch as the wire coming from the positve side of the batter. The other terminal I have the wire coming from the front (i.e. Dist box). -Mark

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

That don't sound right, don't you wanna cut battery power from the alternator and the wire goin up front, so you want them on opposite sides of the battery? If you have it on the same side as the battery, wouldn't it then feed off it even when the switch is flipped to off?

Doofy

iTrader: (21)

I figured I would subscibe since I dealt with the same problem over the summer. I fixed it by spinning some rod bearings and gutting the car out for the cage & new motor
Anyways I was running 2ga all around and having the same problems. I figured that when it went back together I would go with 1/0ga, and try to get the alt rebuilt like kp did. Keep us posted on the fix.

kp

iTrader: (34)

Just a local starter/alternator rebuild shop, most towns have them Cost around 100.00. With the old alternator I could make 3 passes and run the EWP/Fan between rounds and the car would start cranking really slow so I started taking a generator/battery charger with me and would charge it between passes. With the new alternator I can go 8-9 passes, use the EWP in between for 5-10 minutes, and not have to use the generator/charger which is pretty much a whole day of racing no matter what. I just looked at my car and I have 4ga welding cable on the alternator not 2ga.

I also charge the battery before i hit the track with one of those fancy electronic chargers, I have a red top in the car which was a mistake. I should have used a yellow top, that would handle the EWP/cooling fan between rounds better I think.

vtec

iTrader: (1)

what do you guys think about running a ford starter solenoid inline with the alternator charge line? when the rear switch is turned off, the solenoid would lose its ground and open the alternators charge line.

i will be doing this on my car.... 1/0 run from the batt. to the front fender, where all the other connections are made. (alt, starter, fusible links)
i am running a single wire alternator. ~100A.

Bitemark46

No. Because the dist box controls the iginition so to speak, that when the power is cut from there it kills the car. If the alt and the dist box are on the same wire the alt still has a charge and keep the motor still running. The diagram I showed shows that the alt wire and batt wire go to the same terminal. Many cars have followed that diagram that race in NMRA and FFW and they have passed tech with no probs. I have never had any charging probs and it kills off the motor when I flip the kill switch. -Mark

SlickVert

iTrader: (5)

Hey will this work and is it legal?

Use a 4 pole cutoff switch and use one pair for the feed cable from the battery to the starter then to the fuse boxes.
As for the Alt wire, go straight to the fuse boxes, but cut the small exciter wire and take that small wire to the other set of poles on the cutoff switch to disable the Alt
Bob.

kp

iTrader: (34)

The solenoid needs to be on a seperate section of the cutoff switch be it powered or grounded, as long as you do that it will work fine. A ford starter solenoid isnt made to be on all the time though, you can use one of these 'battery isolator' relays though. It will last a lot longer then a regular ford solenoid.

http://cgi.ebay.com/STINGER-SR80-HIG...QQcmdZViewItem

kp

iTrader: (34)

Once the alternator starts charging on these they dont 'shut off' if you remove power fron the single wire, at least on mine it didnt. But if yours did that would work as well. The PCM sends the 'on' signal to the alternator on 99+ cats and the 98 cars the alt turn on comes from the IP cluster. Its a common way to do it and perfectly legal, although I dont think it will work with CS type alternators.

These cars just plain draw a LOT of current when they are running. The days of a dual point/supercoil, a carb with a holley blue pump and a moroso EWP/fan are long gone. Just the injectors and ignition take nearly 30 amps to run and drag racing sees a lot of starts and very little time above idle. I'm probably losing 20+ horespower on a pass just driving the alternator on this car but if my voltage drops too far my fuel pump and ignition gets weaker an weaker every pass, I tossed an alt belt on one pass and by the time I got the car back to the trailer the battery was at 10.5 volts, thats how much current these things draw running and if the alternator cant put out what is being used the battery gets drained more and more every pass.