yayyy charging problems

[txstang84]

Hey fellas, how many new grounds did you guys install when you relocated your battery to the back? Ever since I did my battery relocation, I've had nasty problems with the battery running down. I hadn't driven it for about a week, and this afternoon I go out to crank the beast, lo and behold the battery is ca ca. :damnit:

When the car is running, my voltmeter shows 14v, and nothing seems awry, but if it's warmed up and the fan is running, as soon as I shut it off, I have to disconnect the fan to get enough juice to start it back up without killing the battery-I've read on here about other people having problems with that in the past, but I've run a search already and couldn't find those particular threads.

I used the 3-ft 2ga cable for the ground and made sure it was secure to the hb floor after removing the tar paper insulation and scuffing the surface. The 20-ft power wire is run all the way up to the solenoid, and nothing is powered up that doesn't need to be...the only thing I can think that would have something to do with this would be the grounding.

Any ideas? thanks in advance...

 

[jrichker]

Follow this description and you won't have any grounding problems.

Recommended ground setup for trunk or remote mounted battery:

One each 1 or1/0 gauge wire from battery negative terminal to a clean shiny spot on the chassis near the battery. Use at least a 5/16" bolt on a clean & shiny spot on the chassis. This is the primary electrical ground for lights, fan, radio, etc.

One each 1 or 1/0 gage wire from the engine block (any clean & shiny place) to the place you bolted down the chassis ground 5/16" bolt. This is the starter & alternator ground. Skimp on this one and the car won't crank good.

One each 10 gauge wire from the computer ground (looks like a black cylinder about 1" long x 2 1/2" diameter) to the battery negative terminal. Its' stock position is up near the starter solenoid.

The secondary power ground is between the back of the intake manifold and the driver's side firewall. It is often missing or loose. It supplies ground for the alternator, A/C compressor clutch and other electrical accessories such as the gauges. Any car that has a 3G alternator needs a 4 gauge ground wire running from the block to the chassis ground near the original battery location. Use at least a 5/16" bolt on a clean & shiny spot on the chassis.

Use some dielectric grease on the 5/16" bolts after you have everything in place and tested to prevent corrosion around the spots you sanded clean & shiny.

 

[BERT306]

Here's what happened w/my lovely rear mounted battery.......you should feel lucky.....

Well anyways.... My buddies car had electrical problems w/his rear mounted setup and he took it to the dealer and they added a ground strap up front from the motor to the body near the strut tower, they said the small ground wire behind the motor to the firewall was not enough, so they added another and...walaa, no more problems!

 

[HISSIN50]

a 200 amp circuit breaker might be good protection.

as for the issue, I have used jumper cables (not in their intended purpose) but as additional (in parallel) cables. When one makes a connection and then the car starts better, that connection being 'helped' is a weak one.

One can never have enough grounding. Good point.

Good luck.

 

[srothfuss]

One can never have enough grounding. Good point.

I would like to add, the shorter the grounds the better!

 

[txstang84]

mucho appreciado guys, i kinda figured that's what my problem was, and wanted to confirm it with all the gurus...

i don't have the computer in yet, but i'll be printing out this thread as a reminder when it goes in for the FI swap here in the not too distant future...also, I did (thankfully) already make a 4ga alt charge wire shortly after the 3g swap.

once again, thanks a ton guys, i'll be sure to apply all those safeties