upgrading alternator ground

[powderkey2]

I've upgraded the battery ground and the ground from body to valve cover w/ 4g. How do I upgrade the alt ground? I've seen several threads that say do it...but not sure how it's done...any help?

[Vanilla Sky]

hmm, isn't it a grounded case, meaning it grounds to the engine block? not exactly sure how to go about that without completely rigging it... i guess you could connect between the bracket and the chassis... that's all i can think of

[powderkey2]

Derick...I believe one fellow said it was an alt to battery ground???? I don't know...

hmm, isn't it a grounded case, meaning it grounds to the engine block? not exactly sure how to go about that without completely rigging it... i guess you could connect between the bracket and the chassis... that's all i can think of

[Vanilla Sky]

i just don't see how that would be any better than tapping the chassis for a ground...

[powderkey2]

I don't either...seems a chassis ground would be the way to go...

[Vanilla Sky]

less materials, also

[racerx]

I've upgraded the battery ground and the ground from body to valve cover w/ 4g.

Holy crap, you have a 4 gauge wire going from your valve cover to the body??? That's awesome.

As far as I knew, the alternator's ground was already wired inside the case TO the case. (as in, the case is the ground, since it's bolted directly to the engine block).

What's your main goal here? Trying to lower resistance between the battery and the chassis? or the battery and the alternator? If it's the latter, you could just always upgrade the positive wire going from the alternator to the battery (or fuse box, rather).

[powderkey2]

I'm trying to lower resistance in the grounding system...I'm installing a 500w Polk Momo amp, 2 subs, 2 polk momo's in the rear window. Also have h4 lights...

Just trying to cover my bases so I don't blow the alt again...

Holy crap, you have a 4 gauge wire going from your valve cover to the body??? That's awesome.

As far as I knew, the alternator's ground was already wired inside the case TO the case. (as in, the case is the ground, since it's bolted directly to the engine block).

What's your main goal here? Trying to lower resistance between the battery and the chassis? or the battery and the alternator? If it's the latter, you could just always upgrade the positive wire going from the alternator to the battery (or fuse box, rather).

[powderkey2]

ahhh haaa...so when upgrading the alt wiring you beef up the positive line to the alt...gotcha.

Holy crap, you have a 4 gauge wire going from your valve cover to the body??? That's awesome.

As far as I knew, the alternator's ground was already wired inside the case TO the case. (as in, the case is the ground, since it's bolted directly to the engine block).

What's your main goal here? Trying to lower resistance between the battery and the chassis? or the battery and the alternator? If it's the latter, you could just always upgrade the positive wire going from the alternator to the battery (or fuse box, rather).

[racerx]

yeah, that's what I would do. and remember, when you're beefing up that wire, you want to get better insulation too.

The better the insulation, the better the connection, just like speaker wiring. If you don't have enough insulation around the wires, you can actually pick up engine and road noise, which is weird and I don't understand why, but it happens...

From what I remember, the alternator wire is just a nice, thick wire with a semi-loose rubber wrapping on it. You could probably pick up some beefy wire from your local Home Depot.

The best ground I ever got was the strut mounting bolts in the truck (my battery is in the trunk, btw). I now have between 0.000 and 0.003 ohms resistance.