188 replies to this topic

[skishop69]

Ok, I'm cranky and tired so forgive me. WRONG again!! He is talking about length in rergards to using a fuse.WRONGWRONGWRONGWRONGWRONG! You are correct in that you use length and gauge to rate it's amperage capacity and the SIZE of fuse to use factoring the load of the device being powered. It doesn't matter if it's 2" away, you use a fuse, PERIOD. Length, routing, etc means NOTHING! Fuses are there for a reason. Argue semantics all you want, this is what I do for a living. Now I know why GD responds the way he does when you guys think you know what you're talking about...

[Idasho]

Sure, but if the capacity of said wire far exceeds the device it is powering, a fuse is not needed.

You already have a few of these under the hood on a STOCK car.

[skishop69]

Nope. Fuse is there for not only circuit protection, but DEVICE protection. If the wire capacity exceeds the device load, this is especially important! A dead short in the device with no fuse will cause wiring to melt and possibly cause a fire. The manufacturer doesn't put them there because they are pretty!

[skishop69]

Battery cables are the only non-fused lines under the hood anymore. The reason was fire, safety and liability.

[Idasho]

Battery cables are the only non-fused lines under the hood anymore.

Want to bet? :-p

[skishop69]

Yep. Battery to starter and to UBEC has no fuse. At the UBEC, you have a 125A or similar sized fuse depending on the manufacturer. Inside the UBEC main lines go through the maxi fuses then either out to components or to the dash mounted fuse blocks or to the mini fuses in the UBEC and out to the devices. Careful.... 20 years experience, degree, repair and engineering experience. (yes, I am being light hearted lol)

[skishop69]

UBEC = underhood bussed electrical center

[sikend667]

gauge of wire determines fuse size there is draw down on LONGER runs but the shorter the less resistance less resistance=more amps. at least thats what im deciphering from what ive read. im no electrical expert but i know fused wires are better than no fuse if you want you can do a little expriment at home to prove this. grab a pair of 9v batteries out of the junk drawer, 2 peices of small gauge wire, a 1 amp fuse, set of gloves, soldering iron, solder, and a fire extiguisher. take one wire cut it in half, solder the fuse between the two halves then take the ends and short the battery. fuse should blow fast and remember how hot the wire got. now grab the gloves, the other battery, the other chunk of wire (without the fuse), and make sure the fire extiquisher is close by. with the gloves on short this battery see how hot the wire gets. dont do it for long dont want the battery to split, or the gloves to catch on fire! this will basically prove the need for a fuse no matter how short or how long the wire is you will get the same result.

ohh and when you are done do us all a favor READ THE QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU SPIT YOUR OPINION! i just wanted to know what size fuse i should use not whether or not a 2004 chevy tahoe has every circut fused and whether that upsets you because :Flame:you dont need no fuses for yer rig:Flame: i like to be safe personally so ill be fusing mine if you have a suggestion as to what size fuse should be used i appriciate it if you want to try to justfy your unsafe setup save it for the next idiot.

ok now that im done ranting..... GD thank you for your direction to the proper information but unfortunatly it is all greek to me. i have a spare 4 gauge about 22" long i was going to use. according to the charts ive read itll sustain 110a but with the maximum output being 90a logic to me says slap a 90a fuse in there and call it a day but that doesnt seem right..... any advice would be appriciated

[skishop69]

If the wire is rated ay 110A surge, and the nominal is 90, there is roughly a 10% suge on initial flow (it gan be much higher, but shouldn't be on the alt). If the alternator output is 90A, you need a 100A fuse to avoid blowing it during the initial surge at max power. This will also put you below the wire threshold to minimize any circuit damage should it blow.

[sikend667]

thank you for the sound advice ill report back when its done

[GeneralDisorder]

To be completely accurate there is typically a single large cable from the battery positive feeding the starter solenoid and another ~8-10 AWG wire that feeds the fuse/link panel. Neither of these runs are typically fused. Ideally they would be but the manufacturers don't seem to feel its needed on a very short, very large wire run. Adding an additional run from the alt to the battery to handle heavy draw is important and you should fuse it for the wire size that you use. Remember the load will be shared with the existing wiring so you still fuse it for the wire size even though that may be less than the full amperage capacity of the alt.

GD

[rain_man_rich]

GD, did you delete your pictures on your pic hosting site? I can't see them and I'd like to look at some of the spacer pics.

[Tofutti]

Sorry to be that guy that revives an old thread, but I feel this one is not only worthy of reviving, but should be sticky'd somewhere, maybe in the "how to's" as it helped me immensely. Plus, I had to dig around forever just to find it..

 

Trying to clean up my pictures and hosting.... here's the pics for this thread:

















GD

In response to rain_man_rich above, He re-hosted his pics on page 6 of this thread (But here they are again, above)

 

 

Welp, I got a 94 Nissan Maxima alternator, built by duralast - part # 14661 at autozone. It doesnt fit, there's some bushing in the mount that wont fit into mah car. I would consider filing it to fit except the plug is wrong as well and well, this is looking bleak.

pic of the offending part:


in summery- the 94 year model alternator seems to be a no go.

After seeing this particular post, I wasn't sure my new alt was going to work in my '92 Loyale because I was scared of this same insert on the new alt. In my case, it fit just fine, except I had to add a washer between the outside of this offending part and the original alternator mount bracket to close up a gap that was there.

OP (GD), I absolutely love this thread, and I thank you so very much for finding/making this upgrade so clear. I was reading several posts about this and still wasn't sure this would work with my non-turbo EA82 Loyal, as I do have A/C and a single pulley alt.
It took me longer just to get the pulleys off the alternators than it did to do the rest of the very minor modifications required for this upgrade project  AND install the whole thing.

 

*Note to other Loyale owners:
I found that in my particular model of car, this new alt will hit the mounting bracket when you try to rotate it down, at about the midway-point of the adjuster bracket, thus not allowing you very much slack in the belt. When putting a NEW belt on, you will have to remove the upper bolt and try to drop the top end of the new alt down a bit. Once the belt is on, wiggle it back up and install the upper bolt, THEN tension the belt as normal and tighten the lower bolt.

 

I went from crap

To great!
 

[Tofutti]

Just to try and clarify even further for the first-timers (like me, last week):

 

Sorry, you may have to find a way to zoom in for the pic..

What I did here was mechanically and electrically sound, but it was still temporary. This will get you on the road again safely, but you will probably still want to find the alternator pigtail connector from the Nissan alt at some point, just so water doesn't wreak havoc in there (puddling inside the cup of the connectors on the new alt).

On a side note, I've seen people talking about having to split the ring on the main connector of the alt charging post.. I too, found the original ring terminal to be too small to fit on the post of the new alt, but, not by much. I used an old trick. Take a flat-blade (regular) screwdriver and use it to "drill" the connector out a bit. Go a little bit on one side, then flip connector over and go from the other side. Doing this will help you to not over-enlarge the hole quite so easily, and will still do a neat job.