Loom Between Alternator and Battery - Please Advise

[SkiBum]

Can someone please help us?

Our VR Acclaim lost it's battery the other day and after it being towed to Holden's they replaced the alternator, however said the loom to the battery was dead .

Then they have said these are not made anymore and there is no point in getting a 2nd hand one as they don't hold up to the current going through them...they said go to an auto-elec...and no doubt pay through the nose after paying them much of the hard earned green :ranting:

So, can anyone suggest the best solution to our boggle?

Options I can see are:

1) Go to an auto elec and get a custom one
2) Get a 2nd hand one
3) Make a custom one
4) Get an aftermarket upgade....but which one?

Any help, advice very much appreciated, we don't want to spend big $$$ as they are basically not there and need to keep the car going. :thumbsup:

Cheers

SkiBum

 

[POVRTY]

perhaps look and see what connectors and wire u need on the pos+ side of the battery ans check if its difficult or cheapa 2 pay and get it done. i cant picture it from here

 

[SkiBum]

Thanks mate will have a look and post up what I find.


Seems there are just the two wires running...1 is about a 3 or 4mm, (red) and looks like the +ve feed, and there is another 1-1.5mm wire, (white), connected to the top of the alternator.

The white wire seems to be some sort of signal wire, whereas the red one would be the bugger doing all the work. I'm guessing just upgrading the red wire to a heavier gauge and all should be well.

Any thoughts?

 

[maginoodle]

one of the wires should go to the regulater and the other to the battery. you should only have to replace the one to the battery, the other one should be the the one that goes to your alt lite and should be good still.

 

[hako]

As others have said, its only the heavy cable that goes to the positive side of the battery that need to be replaced. Will check the workshop manual as it probably goes thru a fusible link. If you don't have access to wire/connectors/solder then you could just go to an auto elec and ask him to make up a cable to go from the alt to the bat....he's sure to know what you area after as it is reasonably common. Should cost less than $20 as materials are only about $2 and 5 mins to make up but you will know it is the correct thickness and the connectors will be good.

 

[Patrio7]

when mine died i used some thick gauge cable and two decent eyelets, all from supercheap, only had to crimp and bolt on myself, pretty simple to do,

hasnt failed yet and i was worried the ticker guage cable would be bad but it hasnt melted [ though the insulation did seem pretty lame [ i.e. not very heat resistant ] will have to look over it next time i service my car.

 

[hako]

Had a look at the manual and it has the thick red one going direct to the (+) battery and the white one going to a fusible link (indicated as brown). the brown wire is the warning light one.
As Patrio7 say, you can just run a cable from the alt to the battery. If I were you I'd be tracing the path of the burnt cable from start to finish...which shouldn't be too hard - and then duplicate.
Also, your initial post says that Holden replaced your alternator and then found the wires to be buggered - my first response to that would be that the alternator is OK but the wires are dead. Maybe you need to check further.
Good luck.

 

[SkiBum]

Thanks for the advice all. Have also spoken to another auto elec and he says run a 2nd cable b/w the alt and the battery, so I think this will be the solution.

 

[dontsailbackwards]

Run the thickest cable you can. Pay good attention to insulation - you don't want it to chafe through and short out or you could very-well have a fire on your hands. I just strung a cable between the battery +'ve terminal and the Main fuse block and gain an extra volt on the dashboard under full load (all lights, A/C, rear-demister etc.) and also gained a 10% impprovement in fuel economy. I'm going to run an extra wire from the Alternator to the battery (in flexible heatproof conjute) asap because there is a .55 volt drop from the alternator to the battery under full load. The standard wires are famously puny and not really up to carrying the 80 amps the alternator is spec'd to output.

2 Golden rules - the battery can never be too powerful and the heavy current wires can never be too thick. do a google on 'wire gauge distance current' or something like that to get an idea of the trade-ff for distance and voltage drops.

Good luck!

 

[SkiBum]

Some excellent info and pointers there. Think it will be a trip to Jaycar on the weekend and see what I can source. Hope to get the probs all ironed out. May even look at doing a similar thing to my Forester and see what difference it makes.

What size fuse should be placed inline between the battery and the alt??