1975 Ford Maverick

[gadget73]

yeah, crimp ends are really nice. My Conti has a set and they are just awesome. Its enough to make me want to buy the tool and make my own going forward. Nice heavy copper ends, not that clamp together lead BS.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

For that matter, fuck any and all cable ends that clamp onto the battery terminals directly - get some marine-style terminals and convert the battery to 3/8" studs, then use regular copper lug ends for the cables. Done and over with!

[mitymerc]

Phil, Are you running a gnd cable to the block? That will help w/charging & starting. I never got around to it on the Capri cause it had a huge honkin' battery and didn't seem to care.

[Brown_Muscle]

I read I should do that. I have the 4 Gauge wire i could run to the block. I was going to see how it did with the new wire first. I found it weird the stock 3G charging wire is something like 14 gauge... I would think it would require much bigger wire.

[gadget73]

it does. Stock 3g charge cable is I think 6awg on things like the Tortise. 14 isn't going to handle 130 amps without getting hot. The stock 65 amp panther POS is twin 10 awg, which is basically equivalent to a single 8 awg.

[Brown_Muscle]

I just looked at both the wagon and the maverick, both have 3G's. The Wagon appears to have what must be 6 gauge, however it's not labeled. Here's a picture of it:


This is of the maverick, it's significantly smaller, maybe not 14 gauge, but maybe 10? and some of the strands are torn...I will replace it with some of the old battery wire when I rewire everything else. This should help quite a bit as well I imagine.

[gadget73]

Probably 10 from the original alternator. I'd guess it came with 50 amp originally.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Your wagon pic shows the factory 6-awg 130-amp cable, you're good to go there. The Maverick, yeah that looks like a 10-awg wire, do replace it with something more substantial. IMHO 6 is the absolute minimum you need to use, the larger the better tho, especially if you have something that can pull a lot of juice for prolonged periods of time which would require the alt to run hard for a long while as well. I have 1/0 welding cable on my truck, because overkill is under-rated.

+1 one on grounding the battery to the engine block. Think about it, even batteries that live literally next to the engine usually get a block ground, with a remote battery the current path is that much longer and shittier in quality. Ground battery to block, battery to body, and body to block, use heavy cables and good copper ends and preferably stainless or other hardware that won't be prone to rust.

[Brown_Muscle]

Well since I already have a decent size wire running from the trunk to the engine bay I'll just use it as a new ground to the engine. it's red but I can do what they do with house wiring and "re-code" it ground with a piece of black tape on both ends...haha.

I also bought a new fuse box because the solenoid stud is overloaded with different things going to it with inline fuses.

[sly]

My 93 with the sound system and e-fan tried to melt some 6 AWG cable (it may have been aluminum, so that might have been the issue) and it's all 4 AWG now with no issues.

[gadget73]

I rememeber trying to run a 3g with 8awg once, it felt slightly warm after running for about 10 minutes in the driveway. I changed it to 4. The stock 6awg should be fine for 130 amps but if the connections are shaky or you're really asking for full current all the time it won't do it. Aluminum is a horrible idea in a car for so many reasons. My boss' 79 Impala used a solid aluminum wiring harness back to the trunk, it all broke at random places along the way and he had to make a new harness out of proper stranded copper wire.

[sly]

Not at all sure about that one short segment wire I had... but it was a hot bastard on the charge cable. Never actually melted, but the wire loom I had over it melted.

[mitymerc]

Well since I already have a decent size wire running from the trunk to the engine bay I'll just use it as a new ground to the engine. it's red but I can do what they do with house wiring and "re-code" it ground with a piece of black tape on both ends...haha.

I also bought a new fuse box because the solenoid stud is overloaded with different things going to it with inline fuses.

Bonus!
Definitely do the black tape thing to avoid confusion when it stops running, on the side of the road, on a dark, windy night, when you need to get somewhere at a specific time, on a holiday, with dead flashlight batteries etc...

[Brown_Muscle]

I finally finished patching my rusted passenger door and got it back on the car. Just in time for summer to end... I got motivated and had the rear wheels rebalanced (at least 1 is bent) and installed hub-centric rings. These two things helped A TON with vibrations. I no longer feel like im going to die at 70. That doesnt begin to happen until 80 now...however they are far better at any speed than before..

I also installed the 4-leaf leaf springs i had laying around for the last 2 years. Handling, ride quality, and ride height are all now greatly improved. I can take a corner without major body roll anymore. Of course a rear sway bar would help things further, but that wont happen for a while. Im hoping the car will be ready for paint next year...i keep saying that, but im actually close at this point.

[gadget73]

How does a rear bar mount on these, similar to the aero cars with the bushings on the axle and endlinks up to the frame?