SN95 Alternator Wiring Harness Upgrade?

mikestang63 said:

what alternator are you running. Hopefully not a 3g off off the stock 2g power wires. Any 3g/6g needs a minimum dedicated 4 gauge power directly to the starter solenoid with an inline 125 amp fuse. You can reuse the stock stator wire off the 2g harness but that's it. Also, an additional 4 gauge ground wire from the 2ndary ground point behind the battery and chassis is needed.

If you are still running the stock 2g alternator with the stock wiring, I would recommend swapping to a 3g. You have already witnessed why it is a fire hazard.

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stykthyn said:

For piece of mind if you want to replace the wiring I'm sure you could. Fresh positive and beefier negative cable with an inline fuse. In all honesty I would have to wonder why your plug crapped out. You went through two alts in a very short amount of time. Maybe one kicked out more juice than it was supposed to abd the result was a toasted plug.

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jrichker said:

All it take to overheat the wiring and connections is some extra resistance and a high current draw. The connection or wire with the higher than stock resistance creates heat, which creates more resistance, on and on, it's a vicious circle. What happens then is that the wire or connection finally fails, sometimes in fire or if you are lucky, it just quits working.

A voltmeter is handy if you are familiar with how to use it to find bad connections. Measure the voltage drop across a connection while trying to start the car: more than .1 volts across a connection indicates a problem. The voltage drop tests need to be done while maximum load is on the circuit under test. It's the current flowing through a connection or wire that causes the voltage drop.

See http://assets.fluke.com/appnotes/automotive/beatbook.pdf for help for help troubleshooting voltage drops across connections and components. .

Voltage drops should not exceed the following:
200 mV Wire or cable
300 mV Switch or solenoid
100 mV Ground
0.0V Connections
A voltage drop lower that spec is always acceptable.

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