Charging system mess

[crazytruker]

I was looking at the battery cables in my 2006 Colorado and determined it's a mess. It is stock and goes something like this...
There are 2 wires of different size coming from the positive side and 2 from the negative. One negative connects to a bolt on the inner fender at the base of where the battery is sitting. The other joins the two off the positive and run into that black corrugated plastic wire wrap stuff. It descends down to near the engine where there are two or more splices of that black corrugated stuff. There is a wire off the alternator that heads towards that junction of corrugated stuff, two wires that come out of there somewhere that feed the main fuse block under the hood mounted directly in front of the battery, and I don't know all what else. I wanted to upgrade the alternator to battery wire to 4g and the ground to 4g.

What am I getting in to? Are there any GM Goodwrench mechanics here? Maybe I'd be better off adding a second wire to the alternator output and running it back to the bad and putting in a battery just for the radio and amp (ts350). If I did that would the battery in the bed have to match the battery under the hood for starting? If so I'll be buying 2 batteries I guess...

[crazytruker]

BUMP

[J-570]

I'm not familiar with the Chevy stuff, but sounds like you have a common new alternator where you have two small 10g wires coming from a plug on the alternator going to the battery? if so the only thing to do is upgrade to an aftermarket one that still has the plugs but a single charge wire.

[Doughboy]

crazytruker,


I have a S-10 Pick-up that has the thing you are talking about. What I did was just added the 4g wire to the positive and the negative posts and I didn't remove the small wires that was already there.


Doughboy in the Carolina's I'm gone now !!!

[lonesome 500]

i do know this gm setup causes rfi.....looking to go from alt...direct to batt...then direct from batt to starter.....no splices...

a bud of mine has alt noise because of the splice

[ww228kidd]

one hot wire goes to the starter one goes to the alternator then from the alternator it goes to the fuse box....

what are you tring to do?

[ww228kidd]

sorry, i missed a few things...

i read it again...

the TS 350 should be ok with just coming of the battery like it is,
but if you are planning for future power, here is what i would do, and i know that i will get bad responses on this, but it has worked fun for me and the locals and a the other guys around the east side of U.S....

just run you a jumper from your alternator to your battery, just an extra wire...
if you were gonna add another battery, then just add a good cold cranking amp battery, ( doesn't have to match the front)...run a #2 AWG from the hot post on the front battery to the hot post on the rear, then from the ground on the rear battery, just run it to the chassis...make sure you have a good ground from the engine block to the chassis...

[jessejamesdallas]

Not sure this is what you have or not..But On my E450 Ford Van, I decided to Up-Grade the alternator from a 135amp, to a 250 amp...

Now factory wiring had the wire coming off the alternator going to the fuse box first, then to the battery, and another wire off the battery to the starter...

Now since I was going from 135 amp's to 250 amps this meant changing the wire from the alternator to the battery to a 2ga. wire....What I had to do, to keep from sending 250 amps to the fuse box first, was just disconnect the alternator factory wire going to the fuse box, and install my 2ga. wire from the alternator, straight to the battery.

I left the factory wire from the battery to the fuse box still in place, but the end that originally connected to the alternator, I just taped-up, and tucked it back by the firewall...

I also had 2 ground wires off the battery, a smaller one that connects to the inside front fender, the other connects to a bolt that attaches the engine to the transmission...(not sure what that's all about, so I added a ground strap from that bolt, to the frame)

[ww228kidd]

Not sure this is what you have or not..But On my E450 Ford Van, I decided to Up-Grade the alternator from a 135amp, to a 250 amp...

Now factory wiring had the wire coming off the alternator going to the fuse box first, then to the battery, and another wire off the battery to the starter...

Now since I was going from 135 amp's to 250 amps this meant changing the wire from the alternator to the battery to a 2ga. wire....What I had to do, to keep from sending 250 amps to the fuse box first, was just disconnect the alternator factory wire going to the fuse box, and install my 2ga. wire from the alternator, straight to the battery. You can't send amps....amps are created when something is pulling, meaning current.
I left the factory wire from the battery to the fuse box still in place, but the end that originally connected to the alternator, I just taped-up, and tucked it back by the firewall...

I also had 2 ground wires off the battery, a smaller one that connects to the inside front fender, the other connects to a bolt that attaches the engine to the transmission...(not sure what that's all about, so I added a ground strap from that bolt, to the frame) that is to ground things that are running to the firewall...check firewall for ground wires from other devices

[jessejamesdallas]

that is to ground things that are running to the firewall...check firewall for ground wires from other devices

I know that...What I was getting at, is I don't understand why they had the ground where they did, instead of just grounding to the frame...First time I seen the battery grounded to the engine and transmission like that, instead of just running to a bolt on the frame...

As for the other...Was just pointing out, it would be very difficult to change the wire off the alternator, that was running to the fuse box first, and then to the battery...Plus it would take twice as much wire to do that. (maybe I just "worded it wrong")Just seemed like there was no since in sending all that "current" threw the fuse box first...


I felt like using a shorter wire running straight to the battery would be better than trying to replace 5 or 6' of wire that ran to the fuse box, then across the top of the radiator back to the battery.

[ww228kidd]

got ya