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Need electrical and wiring advice.


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I need to replace the alternator on my Wagon. While im at it, i will be wiring a Stereo, CB and probably 2 or 3 set's of lights. All the wiring will be new complete wiring for the stereo and power and everything. Can anyone give me any advice to help save my car from starting on fire, or jepordising my electrical system.

 

-Brian

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One method I've used is to purchase an aftermarket fuseable terminal strip. They come in different counts from one place up to twelve, and take the glass fuses. Depending on the size that you get, run one or two hot leads in from the battery, to the strip, and jumper a few fuses to each lead. You can even have a couple that are key "hot". Any wires that you run thru the firewall, please use a grommet on any hole you drill. You can poke a hole thru one of the existing grommets with an awl. I've used the ones for the existing main wire loom, heater/ac lines. or any blank ones that are found. I've always used a 12ga wire for main feed to the strip, running more than one if I feel the total load may require it, and I zip tie them to the existing wire loom. Placement of the fuse strip is a personnal choice, mainly ease of wiring and access are the determining factors. Kick panels work good, even put one in a glovebox, but that one was roomy enough. Haven't given any thought to this on either BRAT, yet, so I can't give any 'Ru specific locales. For driving/fog lights, I would recommend using a relay mounted under the hood for wiring the lights, and run the control wires into the switch(es). In-line fuse, or a self-resetting breaker would be good for those too. Just a few thoughts on this................

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i would personally mount the terminal strip somewhere inside the car, that way i only have one fat wire coming in thru the firewall. i like to run wires right on thru with the speedometer cable thru its grommet. run a wire the same fatness as the one off the alternator.

if you run a pair of big lights, either use a metal switch, or use a relay. i have found that the plastic lighted toggles will melt when the terminals get hot (55 and 100w lights)

my stereo is connected to the fuse panel to the acc, but it has its own fuse inline.

 

if you look around you will find a good place for a terminal strip, i would say somewhere near the passenger kick panel.

 

you could bring your wire up thru one of the ac grommets since the battery is over on that side (i keep forgetting my battery is on the other side when trying to think of mine as an example)

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Well, all the wiring im going to run will be completly indipendant of the existing wiring. All on a 12gauge hot lead. My father, being an electrician, has those terminal strips. I dont know much about how electricity operates, like amps... volts etc, so I wasnt sure if I should use individual fuses for each component, or connect a fusible link or something to the main lead.

 

-Brian

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As far as fuses / fusible links go, you could go either way. Putting individual fuses on each branch just makes it easier to troubleshoot if anything goes wrong, and also won't knock everything out if one branch shorts out. Just make sure that the wires can handle the operating current. Remember to de-rate the wire ampacity because of the high ambient temps under the hood.

 

Example: (using tables and guides from the Canadian Electrical Code)

 

#12AWG wire, 90 degree C. temp rating

Rated Ampacity = 25A (CEC Table 1)

 

Assuming max under-hood ambient temp of 60 degrees C

De-rating factor = 0.67 (CEC Table 5A)

 

New Rated Capacity = 25 x 0.67 = 16A

 

If I run the same example with wire rated for 110 degrees C., the capacity becomes 39A.

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altough you will use a fuse for each circuit, use a good 30 amp fuse near the battery, so if the fat wire grounds out on the firewall, it will keep ut from burning up. a fuse like that for stereo amplifiers would be perfect, and the cable it used too

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