wire gauge

[davecarney2]

What gauge wire are you guys running from the alternator to the starter for charging the battery? Im doing an LS swap with an LQ9 out of an SS Silverado.

Thank you in advance.

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by davecarney2

What gauge wire are you guys running from the alternator to the starter for charging the battery? Im doing an LS swap with an LQ9 out of an SS Silverado.

Thank you in advance.

Any alternator upgrade over 100 amps should use an eight gauge output wire.
10 gauge would work for stock trucks without many amp draw loads.

Question is ,why are you running the output to the starter instead of to a main junction? It also may cause the ammeter to malfunction if you plan on using one .

Always give details on the vehicle, year, engine, trans, etc so we can better help you.

Here is a detail drawing showing a good way to run wiring.






He's using 4 gauge from the alternator but he has a winch and the drawing doesn't show the main battery cable going to the starter but its there. I can help more when I get more details on your plan. I. E. what accessories are you running, cooling fans, stereo amp etc.

[davecarney2]

1959 GMC running an all stock 6.0 Lq9 with a 4L80E. Electric fan, full accuair air ride, Ron Francis Express wire kit.

[davecarney2]

As far as why I just wired it by the provided diagram

[VetteVet]

I see they just use the starter solenoid for the main junction and feed everything from there. I also see that they use a different color code on most of the wires.
It looks like you have a new style fuse box as well.

I'd recommend a CS 144 alternator for your application. What did you have in mind?

[davecarney2]

Was just planing on using the existing stock alternator. Just didn't know what gauge wire to run for the charging wire.

[DLW]

What is the amperage of the stock alternator?
If its over 100 amps and your run is greater than 5 feet I would run a min of 4 gauge wire.

I run the same Ron Francis Express box myself but I did not use the starter as a Junction block for my LS3 install. I used a junction block like in the picture VetteVet shows, but I wired it different than his drawing since I have a cutoff switch and battery is mounted in the rear. Also it leaves room to hook other accessories up that need battery power and not over crowd the starter area/stud.

I for example used 1/0 AWG wire in my setup with a 175 amp alternator and 12 ft. runs of wire. Also, I used the same gauge for all charge wiring leading to the battery, maybe that's just me. I also used 1/0 for the grounds to the battery and frame rails.

[rpmerf]

[davecarney2]

Originally Posted by DLW

What is the amperage of the stock alternator?
If its over 100 amps and your run is greater than 5 feet I would run a min of 4 gauge wire.

I run the same Ron Francis Express box myself but I did not use the starter as a Junction block for my LS3 install. I used a junction block like in the picture VetteVet shows, but I wired it different than his drawing since I have a cutoff switch and battery is mounted in the rear. Also it leaves room to hook other accessories up that need battery power and not over crowd the starter area/stud.

I for example used 1/0 AWG wire in my setup with a 175 amp alternator and 12 ft. runs of wire. Also, I used the same gauge for all charge wiring leading to the battery, maybe that's just me. I also used 1/0 for the grounds to the battery and frame rails.

So with that heavy of wire how did you protect the circuit? Resetable circuit breaker or fuse?

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by davecarney2

Was just planing on using the existing stock alternator. Just didn't know what gauge wire to run for the charging wire.

If you are using the stock external regulated alternator it will be a 32 amp or at best a 60 amp alternator. That won't cut it in your application.

You don't usuallly fuse a 4 gauge cable, what you do is use it to run power to a junction and then use fusible links for all the circuits off that.

I'd recommend a /cs 144 for what you have and an 8 gauge alternator wire to your starter solenoid and the harness from Ron Francis will tie in there to the fuse panel you have and you should be fine. Do you have power takeoffs for the air ride compressors at the fuse box or will you have to run a separate junction for those? Given that, I think you would be better off to run your alternator lead to a main junction and tie in the RF harness to that instead of the solenoid. It's going to get might crowded on that small stud with the battery cable.

Do you have a diagram for the air ride system?

I'd also use a 2.0 gauge battery cable on pos and neg.

[DLW]

I used Rockford Fosgate ANL Fuse Holders, on both the Alternator feeding the battery, and also one on the run from distribution block to the flaming river cutoff switch. A manual re-settable circuit breaker is also a good option.

I bought a lot of my stuff from https://ceautoelectricsupply.com/.
The owner also wrote a couple books which I bought as well, very informative, and I pretty much followed their practices. They are also good about responding and sent me some schematics they made. I am a noob at this complete re-wiring stuff myself, just did a lot research and reading. I probably went into overkill mode on some stuff, but it's better than underkill.

[DLW]

Originally Posted by VetteVet

If you are using the stock external regulated alternator it will be a 32 amp or at best a 60 amp alternator. That won't cut it in your application.

You don't usuallly fuse a 4 gauge cable, what you do is use it to run power to a junction and then use fusible links for all the circuits off that.

I'd recommend a /cs 144 for what you have and an 8 gauge alternator wire to your starter solenoid and the harness from Ron Francis will tie in there to the fuse panel you have and you should be fine. Do you have power takeoffs for the air ride compressors at the fuse box or will you have to run a separate junction for those? Given that, I think you would be better off to run your alternator lead to a main junction and tie in the RF harness to that instead of the solenoid. It's going to get might crowded on that small stud with the battery cable.

Do you have a diagram for the air ride system?

I'd also use a 2.0 gauge battery cable on pos and neg.

He mentions in his original thread he did an LS LQ9 swap, those generally have 100+ amp alternators stock ..

[VetteVet]

yeah I figured he had a CS alternator but he said he was using the stock alternator so I just wanted to clarify that. I think we're all on the same page here if he can just figure out what he wants to do as far as routing.

[LH Lead-Foot]

A CS130, CS130D and CS144 is considered to be one of the best designs on the market. Go to alternator man.com / alternator part.com to identify your alternator, read information, rebuild stock or updated parts to meet your amperage needs.

Yes, Bigger wire is need and 8 AWG will handle it, but it should go to a distribution block. From there, either fusible links or Maxi fuses in series for major circuit protection going to fuse block but one parallel first for total system protection. You can snag a Maxi fuse block at the bone yard or the local stereo shop.

Don't forget your grounds...One from the alternator to the block, block to battery, block to frame, block to cab. You can buy anything you need, but I like to build my own with copper eyelets, shrink tubing, proper sized cabling and dielectric grease. With a wire terminal hammer block, you can place eyelets on your cables. Copper eyelets with the right sized holes, can be made from copper water pipe. Smashing one end in the vise then drill the hole to size.

But use the best 8 gauge or 6 gauge wire you can get. Large boat dealers carry it also, along with dielectric grease that is used on everything electrical on a boat.

[davecarney2]

Sorry for the delayed response. I've taken all this in and redoing some of my routing to match. I've ordered wire and a terminal block and am going that route. I've got fusible link wires also for the runs off the terminal block. Keep in mind this is going to be a super basic no frills install. Aside from the air ride which is basically stand alone except for a control wire. Not even a radio.