| Author |
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Bullseye
| | Posted on Friday, August 15, 2003 - 10:57 pm: | 
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Just a little suggestion,for those of you who don't know. If you are running a small amp(500 watts or less) and it seems kinda weak or is drawing the car engine down a simple fix,if you are running straight off the battery,is to upgrade the charge wire from the alternator to the battery. This wire should be on a single post by itself on the alternator running directly to the battery. If you upgrade this wire one ga. like from 10ga. to 8ga. it wiil allow more amperage to reach the battery thereby letting the battery power the amp better instead of it "robbing" the alternator of power. |
Tech671
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2003 - 5:40 am: |
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Upgrading the ground from batt to frame (sometimes non-existant) is a good idea as well. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2003 - 6:24 am: |
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When the engine is running the alternator should be the only thing powering anything,if you are drawing down the battery,then going to a heavier gauge is feasible only if the alt. is of sufficient amperage,that said then going to a heavier alternator is the next step.The storage battery is just that it stores energy to power the starter motor,then after that it is recharged,it also acts as a moderator to quell nasty voltage spikes and as a voltage referance for the voltage regulator.One of the quickest ways to kill your on-board computer is to show your friends that your engine will run with the battery disconnected,it was a "magic"trick my friends used to display to new guys at their shop in pre-comp. days,no more. |
Bullseye
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2003 - 10:36 am: |
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Yes Bob Everything is powered by the alternator when the engine is running BUT there is also a charging post on most alternators as there has to be some sort of source to maintain the "charge" the battery or you would have to use an external charger or replace the battery every 6 mos. Hence if you are running your amp-radio set up off the battery you are pulling power from the battery which has to be replenished some how and if you upgrade the charge wire it will therefore allow more of the power unused to charge the vehicles operation to be diverted to the battery. No this won't hurt the rest of the system as the charging post is the last in the series on the alternator. |
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