Originally Posted by C1ph3r (Post 7824919)

i am very sorry to bring back this old thread but i am not finding information that i need. since I am going to a much higher output alternator, i wanted to run a new 8ga wire to the battery from the alternator.

i am in the middle of this upgrade right now and need some help.
You're in the right place.

i didnt realize that the wire from the alt to the battery was actually running to a few places. i am not even sure where that junction point is on the drives side.

Yes It's in the harness at a soldered connection. Here's how mine was before I made a main power terminal.

Attachment 1610465



i see that the factory wire that came off the post goes into some sort of junction and then to the firewall, to the external regulator and then to the junction block over at the battery.

i have it wired exactly like in post 18 with the jumpers keeping the stock plug in tact.

can i leave the factory red wire with ring terminal disconnected from the alternator and run my new one from the alternator to the battery?

You don't want to do that because you wouldn't be feeding the truck harness except through the single red wire from the right fender to the soldered junction. You would be charging the battery but you'd be defeating the purpose of running the larger wire to the main junction.

Or can I leave it and run my 8ga in addition to it?

You could but you still need to run the *8 gauge to gain more amperage capacity to the truck circuits. The 8 gauge is more than enough to do that but it wouldn't hurt a thing to leave the 12 gauge wire tied to it.

One other thing to consider is, if you have the battery gauge in the dash you will have to wire the 8 gauge wire just like the stock 12 gauge wire or the battery gauge in the dash will not work.

In all honesty, if you are going to use a CS 144 or larger you should invest in a regular main terminal instead of the soldered connection/ Then you could run your cab feed, cooling fans, or whatever, off that, instead of having to solder in those wires.

Here's an example.

Attachment 1610466

Don't take this example literally since it uses a voltmeter instead of the battery gauge. You could wire yours similarly so that every thing would work.
I would suggest that you start a thread in the electrical section if you want to take this further. I can help you better there,

Originally Posted by C1ph3r (Post 7825126)

So I finished hooking it all up exactly as listed above in post 18. It is certainly charging. This thing is putting out way more than 14v. At high idle, it was pegging my meter at 20. At 1000 rpm, it was high 17s. Am I going to fry something or is is to be expected? I got a 94 amp alternator.