[Potenziato]

I noticed I have a problem with starting voltage in the 24V with the battery in the trunk. I died at Frys the other day and had to buy a cigarette lighter charger to get the car started. I ran into Nizam there btw!

So I checked the voltage at the alternator and I am getting 14.2V. When measured at the battery it's like 13.8V. With the battery at the terminals I see 12.55V and at the firewall it's down to 12V. So if my 164 fan comes on and the headlights are on the voltage will drop below 12v and it won't start. Yes, the car is a Milano with a 164 alternator and radiator fan.

So what gauge wire should I be using to minimize the voltage loss?

 

[alfaspence]

iam going to run 164 cables when i do mine + an extra cable for the alternator.
probably overkill but its a job i only want to do once!

 

[Rookie ROX]

Nothing smaller than 4ga wire. Both power and ground.

You could go down to 2ga if you really wanted to, but I'm running 4ga without any voltage drop whatsoever.

ROCK ON
R~R

 

[Hit an Apex]

Perfect excuse to make a jumper battery with a little plug on the side of the car!

 

[fast-alfa75]

What I have done in the past for customers is run a ground wire from the battery under the car and grounded the motor directly with it. If your ground wire is going to the chassis in the trunk, this may be contributing to your problem.

 

[Potenziato]

Guys, thanks for the advice.

Yeah the car is grounded through the chassis. I think I'll try running a jumper cable to see if the voltage increases.

 

[scott.venables]

Where do you guys run your cable(s)?

 

[alfaspence]

Where do you guys run your cable(s)?

i run mine inside the car as per fuel lines etc, under the carpet. i don't like having things like that run outside underneath!

 

[RAGs]

Question ...

It there an advantage to battery relocation for a street/some-time-trial Verde? I was debating doing this and any thoughts would be great.

Sounds like the 4ga would be the way to go if I did.

Thanks.

 

[Grant]

Yeah, you're taking 50lbs off the very front left corner and putting 50 lbs in the back right. That's a change of 100lbs in the direction that you want.

 

[Potenziato]

I found the problem.

It wasn't the grounding or the awg size from the trunk. The car had been wired without a heavy gauge wire from the alternator block back to the wires for the starter and the battery run to the trunk on the firewall. I now have 14.2 V at idle! This is up .5V and god knows how many amps.

Look at the pic of the red wire on Roxanne. This is was what I was missing.