Okay, real quick question:

The bolt on the back of the alternator which the wire with the ring terminal is connected to; it goes directly to the battery correct?

Are there any resistors or crap inline from the alternator to the battery?

Reason i ask is because i have heard that if you upgrade that cable or run a new one it can increase the performance of your car's charging capabilities (i guess it makes sense, the wiring is at least 22 years old right?).

Furthermore, can i just run a new wire along with the old wire, so two wires; the new one and the old one hooked up at the same time?

Just trying to keep a good charge on the battery while i rock out to the stereo.

No i am not ready to put an S4 alternator in just yet, lol.

 

Adding a new wire will improve output only if the old wire is bad. The alternator has a maximum fixed output of 50 amps. If this is not sufficient for your car's needs, suck it up and upgrade.

What you heard may be refering to running a fused wire directly from the battery to the amps.

 

Well, you can run it direectly to the battery +. On the stock setup, it runs to the main fusible link (the side that connects power to the fuse box in the car). This way if the alt was to short out, that link should blow. If you wire directly to the battery, you have no protection. If you don't want to run it back to the main fusible link, get new wire (I got some 8 ga. from an audio shop) and then add an inline fuse that they use sometimes for audio amps (55 or 60 amp) and then run to the battery +. Remove the stock wire and make sure it can't short out against anything.

For the alt upgrade, I highly recommend going with at least an S5 alt. The S4 are no real improvement (N/A ones) and the TII ones are only a little better. There is only a slight wiring difference for S5 and that will bump you up to 80 amp output. You can also find FD alt with a swapped pulley, use same wiring as S5, and that will get you to 100amp+. I am personally using an FC fuse box, S5 alt, and a new 8 ga wire from the alt to the fuse box. Works great and only cost me about $50 or so. I don't have amps or anything, but the voltmeter would always dip on my SE when I had the wipers, headlights, and blower motor going. Now it is rock solid and everything just works better.

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

The S model had a wire directly from the alt to the battery as well as the stock one. I keep in mind that there is no protection every time I tinker in that area. It was like that when I got the car and didn't see anything wrong with hooking it back up.

 

Well, today i tested the voltage while the car was running.

Voltage bounced between 14.07 volts and 14.08 volts

After adding a 8 gauge wire from alternator directly to battery the voltage jumped to 14.29 to 14.30 volts!

So there was some improvement

I would say that my charging system is adequate for what i need ATM

 

I did a write-up for installing an S5 alternator into a GSL-SE. Refer to it in the archives. It'll be money worth spent if you upgrade your alternator with an S5.

 

Cool, i will check it out

 

I changed the alt in the S model today and wrapped the two wires in a rag and kept a very watchful eye on them. It's a 65 amp from an FC. I tested it on the 20B and it was adequate for all those injectors.

 

^ I dont understand the wrapping wires in a rag thing you speak of please explain

 

I think that he means that when he swapped the alt, the battery was still connected. When he disconnected the wires, he wrapped them up so they wouldn't short out. Personally, I just remove the battery (-) cable when doing work like this.