It seems as though i am having some charging issues and know you guys are alot of drag racers and was wondering if you could just listen to the situation and let me know if you got any idea.
battery in "trunk" 2 guage wires running back to it from starter, same gauge running to ground from the the battery ground. I have a 6 gauge wire going from alternator to battery. Brand new ALternator, Brand new battery. THe car will start when battery is charged and then runs for a while, but if i drive it and come to a stop it dies, then i switch to accesory mode and have like 8 volts. I had the battery checked and the alt, and they are both good. i am thinking one of three things, one, not a big enough wire to travel the length of the car and provide a charge to the battery, two, bad ground (which is should be ok) and three a really really bad short, or possibly the pcm is looking for something as far as amps or volts and not recieving it. Can you please shed any advice man, i supposed to go racing this weekend and can not figure this out. My last thought is do i have my starter hooked up wrong i have all thrre leads going to the same stud on the starter, is that right? Thank you so much

 

Put a voltmeter on the battery when running you should have 13.8 volts (means alternator is putting out). Then put on the lights or something that draws power and make sure voltage stays at 13V or better that proves your alt charging under load and your 6 gauge wire is ok. The PCM will shut down with low voltage I think it's about 8 volts or lower, check voltage at the battery when cranking, if above 8-10 volts it should kick over, then check voltage up front at the starter to engine ground when cranking. If its a lot lower than the battery voltage your 2-gauge wires are not carrying the load . Did you run your 12 V 2-gauge directly to starter solenoid and the 2-gauge ground to a good solid engine ground point. Your 2-gauge should carry 100-150 amps for a 10-12 foot run and the 6-gauge will carry 30-40 amps for a 16 foot run, so you should be OK wire wise.

 

Thanks for your insight. yes the pos wire goes straight from starter to the battery and then the alt wire is attatched and runs the 6 guage wire to the alternator. I can get the car to start....barley and it will hold a idle but as soon as i put it in drive and the motor pulls down it dies. upon starting i have 14 volts at the battery and it drops to about 13.3 upon charging......could my starter be shorting out or something..is there a way to tell ? please help....thanks

 

Once the starter solenoid drops out there should not be any voltage present in the starter, any short would be in the solenoid or outbound. I'm concerned about the OP saying all three leads going to same stud on the starter. You should have your 6 gauge going to the solenoid large normally open terminal, a purple wire coming from the ignition start position through the shift linkage Neutral/Park position switch & TDR to the smaller solenoid pick terminal, and then a short large terminal connection from the solenoid common to the starter motor. You said the alternator goes to the battery, are you using one of the wires on the starter to go to the 12 volt distribution block on the front pass side fender. All grounds are through mechanical mounting on the block. If you have three wires on one stud something does not sound correct. ref shbox's site http://shbox.com/1/starter_charging_96.jpg