Quote:
Originally Posted by PontGuy
... At idle with the lights on, turning on the heater fan would literally stall my car. Not sure if the voltage drop was playing havoc with the Holley EFI that was on it then or the MSD distributor. Either way it was not good...
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Exactly what I was talking about.
That Delco unit is pretty good, and the 'service vehicle' ones do provide a good amount of amps at idle. And pretty sure they are 100a. But I had 2 out of box failures on Delco alts, ones that said they were brand new, and when I got them it was obvious they were rebuilt. After that is when I switched to the Bosch ones, they for certain are new, but I needed at min 110a peak. So was forced to go to the 140a. If I sat in traffic with the A/C on and the fans kicking on, and the stereo was up past 1/4 volume, the battery would slowly drain, and eventually cut out (the car). Oh, another good point, use deep cycle batteries.
On the charge wire, on an M&H replacement ENGINE harness, unless you specify the upgrade, it comes with the OE size which I believe is 12g. The one they did for the clone I had them go to 8g or 10g, would have to look.
You would be shocked, no pun intended, if you were to take apart the dash harness side of the fuse block, and look at the connectors. The engine side is no better, and unless you've replaced it at some point, it's going to be a mess. And a job to clean up. Best advice, unless you have more time than money, just replace it.
Although it is common practice to run a wire right from the alt directly to the battery, that's not a good idea. As mentioned, at lest for high load stuff, a common point should be used, and should be where the alt feed goes directly.
Full headlight power passes through the firewall and the headlight switch. Some of those wires are only 14g or 16g, and they bake over time. So does the switch. Run headlight relays on the core support, and use the wire from the OE headlight switch to toggle the relays. Look at the MAD upgrade article for a good explanation, think the link I posted to the other thread has the URL.
chrisp - I think he said he already upgraded to an internally regulated alt.
When you buy the upgrades for rebuilding an alt, the ones that up them to higher output, all they do is overdrive the thing, and the power isn't 'clean' or consistent. Not to mention they usually burn out faster too. One of the big problems with the 10/12si rebuilts is the cases are boogered where the bearing gets pressed in, so they fail early. The other problem is the windings, which rarely is replaced.
CS130 alts overheat too fast, and cores now are just as bad as the 10/12si ones. Don't fall for the 'dual cooling fans' thing, they still overheat. The CS130s also have smaller bearings.
Nick, check the feed wire on the harness you got, see what size it is. Or if it wasn't purchased too long ago, call M&H and ask, they may be able to tell you. You could cut it open, replace the wire, and re-wrap it, it's just the one section that lays on the intake.
If you upgraded to an internal reg alt and got the harness for that, the alt feed wire goes to the horn relay. That makes things easy, that would be your common feed point/post.
I'm going to do a separate thread on an engine harness when the time comes to do the driver, and think I'm going to make a jig. That will make it easier if I needed to make another one, and will give folks an idea of how to DIY a harness. I figure that will be in roughly 6 months, once it comes out of the body shop.
I will have to start with a Painless or American dash harness to get the ATO fuse box, those are only available in bulk, and the manufacturers don't sell retail. The custom harness makers hold those boxes close to the chest, so not to impact sales of completed harnesses.
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