Big Three problem...

[97sprt4x4]

Yesterday i took my spare power cable i had laying around and decided to do the big three up grade, but i could only figure out how to go from alt to batt and then batt to body, where is the other connection supposed to go?

As of right now after i did this my volt meter drops when the bass hits, but i don't have a system, just a aftermarket head unit to aftermarket speakers using stock wiring.... did i do something wrong???

Thanks,
Justin

 

[specialized7]

1) alternator positive to battery positive, 2) battery negative to chassis, and 3) engine ground to chassis.

 

[97sprt4x4]

1) alternator positive to battery positive, 2) battery negative to chassis, and 3) engine ground to chassis.

okay so i got the order wrong. but do you have any idea why the volts drop now?

 

[ZNathan130]

I would suggest a capacitor. I'm no expert, but from what you're describing, it sounds like when a lot of bass is required, your voltage dips. In car audio, when you are using a large quantity of energy all at once, a capacitor is used to allow electrical energy to be stored so that when you do need that extra power, it is there. In short, your voltage drops because your speakers are using more power than is regularly supplied by the constant voltage of your power.

 

[BigBoom]

a capacitor will only benefit you if you have little to no voltage drop. adding a cap will not stop the voltage drop from occurring. how much does it drop? do you have aftermarket speakers in it?

 

[97sprt4x4]

a capacitor will only benefit you if you have little to no voltage drop. adding a cap will not stop the voltage drop from occurring. how much does it drop? do you have aftermarket speakers in it?

Yes I have two different pairs of pioneer speakers but I have no sub now and it still drops which makes me think I made the transfer of electricity worse and I've already gathered from a major concensus on here that capacitors don't do anything but cause problems. I know prior to this time my subs were the cause of the power drop and they used to make it drop as low as 10v so I need better transfer of electricity or more power ie a second battery.

I fall tothe vast knowledge on here for this subject. I can wire anything in but I cannot trouble shoot the many miles of wire that are not of my own placing

Thanks for your help
Justin

Edit it drops down to approximately 12 or 11

 

[BigBoom]

are your speakers a direct replacement? or do they have an amp on them? sorry shoulda asked before. even still i wouldnt think it should drop that much. the big 3 should definitely not hurt the electrical system. it didnt drop before you did it? take the wires back off and check one by one and see which wire is giving the voltage drop. maybe a more solid connection is needed, or just better placement

 

[97sprt4x4]

are your speakers a direct replacement? or do they have an amp on them? sorry shoulda asked before. even still i wouldnt think it should drop that much. the big 3 should definitely not hurt the electrical system. it didnt drop before you did it? take the wires back off and check one by one and see which wire is giving the voltage drop. maybe a more solid connection is needed, or just better placement

They are direct replacement with no amp. However I only effectively did the wire from the alt pos to the batt pos and then the batt neg to the ground right to the left of the battery next to the radiator so I don't know if I didn't get the full cycle and ots dropping because it's getting bottle necked by the stock wiring which is why it seems like it's dropping worse then before

 

[aznboi3644]

cap will not help an already weak electrical.

The big three is just the basic upgrades.

if you want your electrical flow to be the best it can be upgrade these.

-Alt to Battery pos.
-Battery neg. to frame
-Battery neg. to body
-Alt casing to battery neg. (what I did here was daisy chain the alt casing the the engine block and then to the battery neg.
-There are three or four ground straps below explorers on the sides. These ground the body to the frame. upgrade to at least 4 gauge.
-There is also a wire that grounds the block to the firewall but I didn't upgrade that on my X.
-Battery pos. to factory inline fuse.
After I upgraded all these with my stock all I had voltage dips only down to 13 volts with 1500 REAL watts rms. Even then the voltage would recover very quickly.

 

[97sprt4x4]

cap will not help an already weak electrical.

The big three is just the basic upgrades.

if you want your electrical flow to be the best it can be upgrade these.

-Alt to Battery pos.
-Battery neg. to frame
-Battery neg. to body
-Alt casing to battery neg. (what I did here was daisy chain the alt casing the the engine block and then to the battery neg.
-There are three or four ground straps below explorers on the sides. These ground the body to the frame. upgrade to at least 4 gauge.
-There is also a wire that grounds the block to the firewall but I didn't upgrade that on my X.
-Battery pos. to factory inline fuse.
After I upgraded all these with my stock all I had voltage dips only down to 13 volts with 1500 REAL watts rms. Even then the voltage would recover very quickly.

Thank you i was waiting for your post. i think all i did was alt pos to bat pos and then bat neg to a ground near the radiatior. not sure what it was, but by stock it's grounded there.

I know from your posts all over here that caps don't do anything, so i kinda dis regarded that.

Thank you.
Justin

 

[BigBoom]

you havent added power, so there shouldnt be any bottle necking going on. there's still stock power on stock wiring, so adding any kind of wiring should yield an improvement. i've seen people add one wire and already see an improvement

try running the ground wire to another spot on the car. the positive should be fine as there's only one place to run a positive to a positive.

 

[aznboi3644]

first upgrade I did was just a simple battery neg to body ground with some 4 gauge kicker hyperflex.

The improvement was actually very surprising...voltage was already higher and would recover a little better

 

[97sprt4x4]

After I upgraded all these with my stock all I had voltage dips only down to 13 volts with 1500 REAL watts rms. Even then the voltage would recover very quickly.

just out of curiosity.... what do you deem a real watt?

 

[BigBoom]

i'd imagine actual power that the amp is producing. after box rise, voltage, etc is figured in. clamped power. and/or power from a reputable brand.

 

[aznboi3644]

just out of curiosity.... what do you deem a real watt?

Many many noobs say they are pushing 1000 watts even claiming 3000 watts with 3000 watt subwoofers when actually the equipment is less than 500 watts.

I'm talking about actual rated amplifier output. Many people believe the false ratings on many cheap low quality equipment.

There are many 200 watt amps that would beat the crap out of many many "1000 watt" amps nowadays

 

[97sprt4x4]

Would kicker apply to one of those quality brands that are actually correctly rated?

 

[aznboi3644]

kicker is real numbers