Alternator

[TexasBoy]

Ok i got 3 amps 1 600watts, The other 2 are 140watts each, and i have a crossover every thing is wierd to a capasitor then the capasitor is wierd to the Batt.. On some songs When the Bass is real Hard my altinator gauge needle moves alote is the bad? if so what can i do to fix it?

Thx
Will

 

[Turdle]

This is one for the audio guys---

 

[Wagonized]

take out the capacitor and upgrade your big three wires under the hood.

1) alt charging post to batt +
2) batt - to chassis ground
3) batt - to motor ground

upgrade these to a minimum of 4 gauge wire. Preferrably 1/0 wire. That should help your problem a lot. If it still persists you need a higher output alternator

 

[DOZIER]

What he said

 

[Spdrcer34]

...I second that motion.....oh, wait...I third that motion....

Ryan

 

[Turdle]

Why do you guy's want him to ditch the capacitor?

 

[DOZIER]

Actually, I forgot that first line up there. I think you should keep the cap. But def. do the big three and go from there on if you need a new alt.

 

[Wagonized]

Why do you guy's want him to ditch the capacitor?

because caps are really quite useless when you think about it.

They discharge very quickly meaning on any large or heavy bass note they're discharged already in tenths of a second and your system functions as though you never had a cap to begin with. Then after the bass note your alternator not only has to run the rest of your vehicle as usual but now it also has to recharge the cap. This makes your alt work harder than it has to and can severely limit its life

Caps discharge quickly but recharge much slower. With a bigger system they are almost constantly discharged when playing at loud volumes.

If the big three upgrade is done and an alternator upgrade. If you get a big enough alt it will be more than enough to run the truck and your system all the time. If your system still draws too much current for your HO alt (rare) then you can either add a 2nd alt or more batteries.

Batteries are superior to caps because they have much much more reserve to them.

Caps however are useful if you have a whole wack of them...like 100+ farads. But even then the big three and alt upgrade should be done first and all those caps will cost more than 2 or 3 really really good batteries which will still have 100x the reserve to them.

 

[DOZIER]

Good point. I will add though that the single farad capacitor that I had from SWX was a pretty good cap. When I had my six MTX 5500 12's and my three MTX 801d's, that was drawing some voltage and before I got the cap, I had all kinds of voltage drops showing up on the dash. My headlights were dimming and everything. But after I got that single farad, it was fine. I could crank it up for as long as I wanted, which was usually only for about maybe 15 minutes before I got a headache. It never fell below 11-12 volts. It usually took only about two or three minutes for it to hit back up to 14.X volts and it would shut off again. Now I have seen some pretty crappy capacitors. But I would have to say if you DO get a good one...They can do some good. But also, your alternator has to be able to handle all that recharging. It depends on what the alternator puts out and what the system draws. I am not arguing with you Wagonized. I am simply stating my experience and two cents.

 

[Wagonized]

Good point. I will add though that the single farad capacitor that I had from SWX was a pretty good cap. When I had my six MTX 5500 12's and my three MTX 801d's, that was drawing some voltage and before I got the cap, I had all kinds of voltage drops showing up on the dash. My headlights were dimming and everything. But after I got that single farad, it was fine. I could crank it up for as long as I wanted, which was usually only for about maybe 15 minutes before I got a headache. It never fell below 11-12 volts. It usually took only about two or three minutes for it to hit back up to 14.X volts and it would shut off again. Now I have seen some pretty crappy capacitors. But I would have to say if you DO get a good one...They can do some good. But also, your alternator has to be able to handle all that recharging. It depends on what the alternator puts out and what the system draws. I am not arguing with you Wagonized. I am simply stating my experience and two cents.

ya you cant argue with first hand experience. Was that all with the stock alternator? Ever have any alt problems?

 

[DOZIER]

Everything was with the stock alternator. No problems ever. I upgraded my alternator before I bought my new system. My old system was stolen and I knew my new one would be massive so I went ahead and bought it and did it on my own.

 

[davesexplorer]

With only 880 watts (probably peak) the cap wont hurt anything... but it may or may not help.

The big 3 is a good help to "eek out" all the wattage and current flow your stock setup can provide, if your battery is older, low on it's output voltage or just simply isn't doing the job anymore - you could look into upgrading that. I've had great benefits from just upgrading the battery, odyssey, nsb, optima, kinetik, stinger, exide orbital, scoshe etc. are all good batteries to look into for an upgrade. I previously used Optima batteries, or exide extreme orbitals and they worked well, now since early summer of '05 I've used Kinetik and I'm very impressed.

 

[Wagonized]

With only 880 watts (probably peak) the cap wont hurt anything... but it may or may not help.

The big 3 is a good help to "eek out" all the wattage and current flow your stock setup can provide, if your battery is older, low on it's output voltage or just simply isn't doing the job anymore - you could look into upgrading that. I've had great benefits from just upgrading the battery, odyssey, nsb, optima, kinetik, stinger, exide orbital, scoshe etc. are all good batteries to look into for an upgrade. I previously used Optima batteries, or exide extreme orbitals and they worked well, now since early summer of '05 I've used Kinetik and I'm very impressed.

ive used optima d34s and the orbital extremes and my odyssey 2150 is on such a higher level its not even funny. Ive got two nsb90s on their way now that im hoping will be even better than the 2150.

 

[StillKicken]

Do you use power wire that you use for your amps, or do you use other type of wire with bigger strands?

Can you put an overdrive pulley on a stock alternator, w/o having done the other underdrive pulleys, without any adverse reactions?

Thanks

 

[DOZIER]

Yes you can use the car audio power wires for your alternator. 1/0 ga wire. You could also use welding cable or anything else you can find cheap which is a little flexible and thick. As for the overdrive pulley. I would not reccomend it simply because if your alternator was made to produce that much power...It would have from the factory. In time it could seriously hurt your alternator. Get an upgraded alternator. Remember to do the Big 3 before you do the alternator upgrade. You might be ok with just the Big 3.

 

[StillKicken]

Thanks. Will definitely try this first as a lot cheaper. New muffler comes first anyways.

 

[StillKicken]

take out the capacitor and upgrade your big three wires under the hood.

1) alt charging post to batt +
2) batt - to chassis ground
3) batt - to motor ground

upgrade these to a minimum of 4 gauge wire. Preferrably 1/0 wire. That should help your problem a lot. If it still persists you need a higher output alternator

On my stock wire, the alternator wire goes to the relay, not battery. If i run this straight to battery, is it going to fry something?

 

[DOZIER]

You should be ok. I left the stock wiring alone on mine. I just added a run of 1/0 to the alternator.

 

[StillKicken]

Should I fuse it? Have done a lot of searching on this site and some say fuse and some not. If so, what size?
I use a 60 amp for the line going to my amps. I would guess the same for this.

 

[Wagonized]

Should I fuse it? Have done a lot of searching on this site and some say fuse and some not. If so, what size?
I use a 60 amp for the line going to my amps. I would guess the same for this.

i personally wouldnt fuse it. its a very short run of wire and if you have it grounding out somewhere along that line you've major problems in your head.