Creating More Energy!

[bennysmopar]

Good evening,
As I progress with the restoration of my 1967 Plymouth GTX I'm progressing into the ancient electrical system. I always remember how my car reacted to the mid-range stereo system when we used to go to the park and let it loose and how long it took to charge that 27 series battery back up! So now that I'm going to install a MUCH better system from Crutchfield I see the availability of much better alternators with built in regulators and pushing a lot more amps. I'm looking at a 165 amps alternator with a built-in regulator, I'm pretty sure I'll have to modify the old charging system wiring to accommodate a change like that or fry the old wiring! Has anybody out there done a modification like this and could share their do's and don'ts?
Benny

 

[BeepBeepRR]

Look into the MAD amp gauge bypass. And do a separate headlight harness with relays that will help.

 

[bennysmopar]

Thanks for the quick reply!
Benny

 

[493 Mike]

Upsize the charging circuitry to handle whatever amount of amperage you will be sending to that battery.
Mike

 

[bennysmopar]

Thanks Mike
Benny

 

[Nacho-RT74]

ONCE AGAIN.

Amperes are not pushed in by the source. They are sucked in by the devices.

You can get a thousand amps alt but if the car just demands 55, the alt will provide 55.

The wiring size is installed according to the device to feed, not by the source size.

The same batt able to crank up the engine with a 2 gauge wire to starter motor, also feeds the glove box light with a 16 gauge wire. And the glove box light won’t get burnt by the amperes capacity of the batt.

The batt when discharged is just one more device. And no matter how much you try to push amperes into it, the batt won’t eat that. Just will suck whatever their internal chemical process speed is able to handle. On my Own experience using 27 group batts with 900-1000 amps reserve capacity, on a DAILY DRIVER CAR like my Charger used to be, it NEVER sucked more than 40 amps for a few minutes (from really FULLY discharged stage needing to jump out the batt to crank up the engine) then got slowed down to 30, then 20 amps for the next half an hour or so… using a 80 amps alt.

This power being sucked out from alt by a discharged battery won’t get speed up or get increased no matter how much you increase the alt output. A discharged battery is just one more device to be sourced on this stage, just like a starter motor or a glove box light.

What is true is that with a propper alt, the battery will barely be requested to source anything, so it never will need to get constantly charged anymore. So… why worry now?


@bennysmopar please read the stickied thread on this board section

Just need to source CORRECTLY any upgrade or ACC.

 

[Nacho-RT74]

Of course an alt MUST BE ABLE to source everything, and the total ammount of load requested must be handled by the primary charge circuits network including a discharged battery if happens, but NOT because the alt capacity really, but by the total car demand at certain stages.

You can consider how much you turn on the A/C at max speed… day or night? (Parking and headlights) at traffic light car geared and giving brakes? Raining? (Wipers on)

If the alt is able to source ALL of that at the same time at the lower engine speed as posible, you won’t have to worry EVER by the batt capacity or even the ammeter scale reading itself. Just a healthy paths.

The higher output capacity will point out to a best alt capacity to source everything with most of accs on and maybe even at iddle, and a relaxed battery never being requested for extra supplying stage. So your ammeter will be relaxed at zero or barelly flicking.

Taken from Chrysler Master technicians literature: