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Thread: 1989 Mustang charging issues

  1. #1
    SCH Member
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    1989 Mustang charging issues

    ..probably a well overused topic of disscussion.

    Always worried that the alternator was barely charging the battery (the car would barely turn over sometimes), and after two alternators, I decided to go with a one wire 130 amp 3G setup.

    Heres what I did:

    1. One wire 3G 130 amp with four gauge to the battery (pry a 'lil over 6 feet).
    2. From the battery 4 gauge to the starter relay.
    3. 2 Gauge to the starter from the starter relay (damn near 9 feet 'cos the relay is in the inner fender).
    4. Brand new Optima Deep cycle battery.
    5. Rerouted starter relay and all drivers side engine compartment wiring through the inside of the fender.

    Here's the issues:

    1. There's a lot more voltage (14.1v) BUT, after the car sits will barely turn over again.
    2. Where should the ground wires (large wire and small wire) from the battery attach to? I cannot remember where either of these should go. Whats the ideal ground place?
    3. Aluminum bracket on the alternator. Is this a problem? Do I need to run a ground wire to the bolts (this is a Paxton supercharged car and the Paxton alternator bracket is aluminum too).

    help!
    Last edited by Hella Good; 01-06-2004 at 08:28 AM.

  2. #2
    Junior SCH Member 1quick95's Avatar
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    You can try running a extra ground wire from the engine to the body to see if there is a difference.Has the battery ever gone completely dead?Sometimes when a deep cycle battery goes dead,its shot for good.

  3. #3
    SCH Moderator 5150 LX's Avatar
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    Is your battery relocated to the trunk???
    Quote Originally Posted by Kato Engineering
    you just like the metric system because when you talk about your organs length, a three digit number seems to you longer than a one digit number....
    Dart Block 331 and No Power Adder, currently in pieces...... :weird:

    Used to run 6.90 @ 100.4 mph in the 1/8th

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by 5150 LX
    Is your battery relocated to the trunk???
    no. I'm still running it in the left front side in the engine compartment. However I do have a bunch of 27N deep cycles that I use with solar panels (a whole different topic in itself) and I've been considering that.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1quick95
    You can try running a extra ground wire from the engine to the body to see if there is a difference.Has the battery ever gone completely dead?Sometimes when a deep cycle battery goes dead,its shot for good.
    no, 1quick95, it hasn't..

  6. #6
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    If anyone GAF..

    ..I got it working.. 2 gauge to the motor right above the oil filter.. there's a great item on Corral about this. Now I got 13.5 -14 volts with ice, lights, wipers and big stereo with 2 large amps firing 6 channels of audio. Contrary to the badmouthing that one wire alternators get, this car fires up and is charging the battery without having to goose the throttle to excite the alternator. In a month, this alternator hasn't let me down and is substantially more of an improvement than any of my 2 previous alternators (one out of a '93 and a Jeg's "high performance" one) in this car.

  7. #7
    Junior SCH Member 1quick95's Avatar
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    At least it was something simple :)
    1995 Mustang GT- Dart 331 twin turbo...... http://www.cardomain.com/ride/267384/10
    1991 Mustang LX- EFI 351....soon
    Stangtuning.com

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