Posted by Willy-N [162.158.74.78] on Thursday, December 29, 2016 at 15:33:22 :
In Reply to: Re: Alternator installed posted by The Dodge Boys [162.158.78.7] on Thursday, December 29, 2016 at 13:34:36 :
If he does not run the load of the hydraulic motor thru the gauge and only the load of the truck stuff it will be OK. But if he runs the new alternator thru it I know it will damage the older wiring. My 105 amp alternator on my 6x6 I used #4 copper wire to the gauge but could not terminate it to the 1/4" lugs due to the size and stiffness of the wire worth a darn and make the connections tight. So I connected 3" of #10 copper wire to the lug ends of the #4 cables. All went well gauge worked great showed a 90+ amp charge to the battery after the pump was running awhile with the engine shut off. Then I ran the pump and engine at the same time it stayed in the 90 amp plus range till I shut the pump off and returned to the middle 5-10 amp plus charge rate. I reached under the dash to feel those short #10 wires and the insulation was soft and the wire was real hot! If it had been a long wire it would have cooked it and burned up under the dash. I had done a load calculation using voltage drop for the 3" wire and the load it could carry and it was close but it did not figure in the heat developed doing it. So I had to pull my gauge out of the charging circuit and glad I did not damage anything. That is why I said to use a shunt it is real hard to connect the proper size wire to the 100 amp gauges. But if this is not believed do it and see what happens you will be sorry you tried it when you slap a 100 amp plus load to the original wiring and gauge in the dash. It was never meant to handle a constant load this high maybe a short term load it would not heat up?? I know the motor for my hydraulic pump is fed with 2/0 copper just like a starter motor. Try and run the starter with a #10 or #8 copper wire and see if it burns up or melts at the connections. Then decide if you want to use that size of wiring for the gauge that will be handling the full load of a 135 amp alternator. Not yelling at anyone just not sure how to say it is important not to do this cause I don't want to see you damage anything.
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