The safest cleaning solvent for alternator interior?

[dom14]

If the load doesn't max out the Alternator why bother putting in a bigger Alternator?

The Alternator load isn't just the battery charging current.
The load will be all the lighting, accessories, engine management PLUS the battery charge current.
IE the Alternator will feed all the load until the load is so great the Alternator can no longer maintain 13.8 or more at max output.
The battery won't even start to load share until the Alternator Voltage is dragged down to below approx 13 volts ish (the ish depends on many factors).

Alternator max output is governed by it's RPM so you could have a fully charged battery and still pull maximum regulated current out of an Alternator with not a single ampere going into the battery circuit.

What would be pulling that maximum regulated amp out of the alternator? If not the battery, then it must be something else.
Blower fan, ECU, lights, etc etc combined?
Can all these components(excluding the battery) draw in excess of 100A from the alternator charge wire??!!!

If you wish to use sperate cables that is fine.
After all any multi strand conductor is exactly that, multiple cables inside one jacket.
It is not ideal to fuse them seperately IE two 50 amp fuses does not equal a single 100 amp fuse unless the impedance path thru both cables is identical.

Yes, of course. That was only a rough estimate. I'm pretty sure I indicated that in my post.
Two cables are obviously not identical, so they carry different impedance(or resistance rather since we are talking about DC current here) ratings, so I would place the fuse according to each wire's maximum ampacity rating.
For our(my) needs a rough estimation is enough.
It is not ideal, but I think it will do the job. It's better to use the original alternator charge cable+fuse, while adding a new charge cable+fuse for the upgraded higher amp alternator. One good reason for that is that the sense wire & battery charge wire joins only few centimeters from the alternator down the wire harness. So, disconnecting the old battery charge wire from the alternator and adding a brand new one will bring disastrous results 'cos of the inadvertently disconnected sense wire, which will cause the alternator regulator to falsely assess the battery as zero voltage and put out the maximum alternator voltage output(15+ volts) I'm sure once we know that we can simply connect the sense wire to the new battery charge wire. But, it's kinda makes sense to me to use the old charge wire, rather than disconnecting it.

Why not use/leave alone something that was already there and can function as a reliable backup in case the new wire meets a mishap?

[Yendor]

The idea is that the factory way of joining the alternator B+ wire and sense wire just few centimeters from the alternator gives false reading to the regulator about the battery charge status. When we disconnect that joint(sense wire) and wire a new wire from sense wire to the battery directly regulator get a better reading from the battery and charge the battery half a volt or so, effectively charging the battery better and expand the lifespan of the battery. That's the tip I was given.
The downside is that when we disconnect the sense wire/charge wire connection and create a dedicated battery to sense wire connection (with a fuse), can have an issue when(or if rather) the fuse blows. When that happens the regulator sense wire pin gets zero volts from the battery and "decides" the battery is flat and puts out the maximum output from the alternator(which means 15+ volts). That's obviously not a good thing for the components of the vehicle electrical system(I know that from first hand experience last year. )D

I take it you have been reading IAFNAN thread… The mod is good. It can help overcome minor voltage drop between the alternator and battery by raising the alternator output voltage. The GUs are wired this way.

You seem a bit paranoid about this fuse blowing. Just make sure the wire is run in a way so it doesn't rub on anything and is in conduit.

My new idea is to do the sense wire mod by creating a bypass from sense wire near the alternator to the battery(with a fuse), instead of cutting the connection between the sense wire and the alternator battery wire. I'm just being told that would defeat the purpose of the above modification.

So, Rodney, what is your opinion about this mod?! If you're thinking we're chasing a wild goose by doing the above(sense wire mod), please do tell.

Doing it this way you are running a parallel charge circuit with the original main cable between the alternator and battery. This means that the battery will also receive charge along this bypass wire that you have run.

You need to disconnect the original sense wire from the main cable.

[Throbbinhood]

Did you cut the sense wire, so there's no connection from sense wire to battery charge wire?

or did you just create a bypass?

If you cut the wire, make sure to insulate the open end of the cut wire 'cos in your setup(and mine)it's connected to the charge wire and has +12V high amp.

Hey mate, yeah - I cut the sense wire about 2cm from the plug. I originally cut further up, I figured that the join was further up - it isn't - I'd cut the original charge wire.. Oops! Lucky I had some spare terminals to rejoin it. That said, even if it was disconnected my bigger charge wire will be up the job anyway. After fixing that up, I cut the proper wire and ran the cable straight to battery - and yeah, insulated the other end of the original sense wire. Both my batteries are topped up at the moment, so hard to say if it's bumped up the voltage, but like I said the voltage certainly seems more stable than previously.

Do you know if the original charge wire is fused/has a fusible link (and if so, where is it)? Just want to make sure that it's up to the job if anything goes wrong.

Also, winching would draw those sorts of amps - but I'm not entirely sure how that side of things works (otherwise everyone would be blowing charge lines when the winch tries to draw 400a). At a guess, everything draws from the battery rather than the alternator. The alternator just supplies the battery and attempts to keep it topped up. Just guessing though.

[Winnie]

Hey mate, yeah - I cut the sense wire about 2cm from the plug. I originally cut further up, I figured that the join was further up - it isn't - I'd cut the original charge wire.. Oops! Lucky I had some spare terminals to rejoin it. That said, even if it was disconnected my bigger charge wire will be up the job anyway. After fixing that up, I cut the proper wire and ran the cable straight to battery - and yeah, insulated the other end of the original sense wire. Both my batteries are topped up at the moment, so hard to say if it's bumped up the voltage, but like I said the voltage certainly seems more stable than previously.

Do you know if the original charge wire is fused/has a fusible link (and if so, where is it)? Just want to make sure that it's up to the job if anything goes wrong.

Also, winching would draw those sorts of amps - but I'm not entirely sure how that side of things works (otherwise everyone would be blowing charge lines when the winch tries to draw 400a). At a guess, everything draws from the battery rather than the alternator. The alternator just supplies the battery and attempts to keep it topped up. Just guessing though.

My understanding is it will pull whatever it can from the alternator, and if it needs more it will take it from the battery.

[dom14]

Hey mate, yeah - I cut the sense wire about 2cm from the plug. I originally cut further up, I figured that the join was further up - it isn't - I'd cut the original charge wire.. Oops! Lucky I had some spare terminals to rejoin it. That said, even if it was disconnected my bigger charge wire will be up the job anyway. After fixing that up, I cut the proper wire and ran the cable straight to battery - and yeah, insulated the other end of the original sense wire. Both my batteries are topped up at the moment, so hard to say if it's bumped up the voltage, but like I said the voltage certainly seems more stable than previously.

Do you know if the original charge wire is fused/has a fusible link (and if so, where is it)? Just want to make sure that it's up to the job if anything goes wrong.

Also, winching would draw those sorts of amps - but I'm not entirely sure how that side of things works (otherwise everyone would be blowing charge lines when the winch tries to draw 400a). At a guess, everything draws from the battery rather than the alternator. The alternator just supplies the battery and attempts to keep it topped up. Just guessing though.

Yeah, but during winch installation, we would add thick high amp wire connection from winch to the battery, wouldn't we? If the engine is running while winching(which usually is the case), then the winch can draw lot of amps via the alternator-battery charge line as well, since the alternator voltage out is slightly higher than the battery. I'm not sure this would put extra strain on the alternator charge wire and blow the fuse.

I wait for Rodney's advice on that.

Do you know if the original charge wire is fused/has a fusible link (and if so, where is it)?

Look fora thick white wire(or two) near the battery positive terminal and trace from there. The fuse should be on the white wire not too far from the
battery positive terminal.

[Robo]

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[4bye4]

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[Throbbinhood]

Yeah, but during winch installation, we would add thick high amp wire connection from winch to the battery, wouldn't we? If the engine is running while winching(which usually is the case), then the winch can draw lot of amps via the alternator-battery charge line as well, since the alternator voltage out is slightly higher than the battery. I'm not sure this would put extra strain on the alternator charge wire and blow the fuse.

Hmm, it just occurred to me that the winch can only draw from the alternator what the alternator can supply, which in this case is 100ish A. It doesn't matter that the winch may be drawing 400a, as it will draw the remainder from the battery.

[dom14]

If the load doesn't max out the Alternator why bother putting in a bigger Alternator?

Yes, it's pretty valid question.
I thought we are upgrading the alternator to compensate for all the extra components+appliances we add to the vehicle electrical system, but didn't think we need a super thick(1 cm and above) alternator charge cable to compensate for the extra amps. One of the reasons for my argument was that no stock high amp alternators come equipped with such thick wires from what I've seen so far.

For example, EF-EL Falcon alternator that I used for the upgrade came from the Ford EF-EL. But, is the charge cable of that car as thick as the one we are trying to use in
Patrol??!! I tend to think that's not the case.
If you are right, then we have to argue EF-EL Falcons come equipped with an alternator which is an overkill for the car's electrical demands.

But, I agree, winching can produce a totally different scenario, and it may be correct that a thicker higher ampacity charge wire can come handy in such situations(as well as higher amp fuse).

[dom14]

Hmm, it just occurred to me that the winch can only draw from the alternator what the alternator can supply, which in this case is 100ish A. It doesn't matter that the winch may be drawing 400a, as it will draw the remainder from the battery.

Yes, that's absolutely correct. But, when the winch does draw the highest possible amps from the alternator(in our case 100 ampish), then we can argue, a thicker, higher amp(100+ ampacity) wire may be a requirement, depending on time length of the winch running recovery. Necessity of a higher amp fuse is obvious.

I think it would be great to hear from guys with practical experience in this scenario.