Group 31 mod, its time

[leftcoastjeff]

What gauge wire will I need for the battery connections from the starter and the other battery?

On a side note, I have a remote starter, which contacts (on the solenoid) do I connect it to?

Thanks in advance.

So far I need:
10.5' of red (batt to batt and batt to starter)
8' of black (ground for both batterys)
9, 3/8" connectors for the battery wires
1, for the Tommy gate (3/8" wire)
1, for the power feed to the starter solenoid (1/4" wire)
2, for the small ground wires (18 Ga.?) on the passenger side

Am I missing anything?

Would it be better to ground the battery on the driver side to the other battery or clean up the grease ball where it attaches to the block?

LCjeff

I'll be taking pics for a possible tech article as I do not see one.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

What gauge wire will I need for the battery connections from the starter and the other battery?

On a side note, I have a remote starter, which contacts (on the solenoid) do I connect it to?

Thanks in advance.

So far I need:
10.5' of red (batt to batt and batt to starter)
8' of black (ground for both batterys)
9, 3/8" connectors for the battery wires
1, for the Tommy gate (3/8" wire)
1, for the power feed to the starter solenoid (1/4" wire)
2, for the small ground wires (18 Ga.?) on the passenger side

Am I missing anything?

Would it be better to ground the battery on the driver side to the other battery or clean up the grease ball where it attaches to the block?

- positive from battery to battery at least 2/0 cable
- positive from passenger-side battery to starter at least 2/0 cable, preferably 3/0
- grounds from batteries to engine block go for 2/0 again
- positive from passenger-side battery to starter solenoid on the fender, at least 4 awg.
- grounds from each batter to body (radiator support) at least 12 awg
- is the tommy gate pump near the rear of the truck? If so go for at least 1/0 cable, as that's a lot of power traveling down a long cable.

Also, now would be a good time to give the glowplugs relay its own dedicated heavy-gauge power weed, as the two 10-awg factory wires are in my opinion inadequate for the amount of power they transfer - I installed a 4-awg cable from the battery directly to the GPR, factory 10-awg wires are still there as well.

Additionally you should not ground the batteries to each other - actually you most certainly can, but you still need their two grounds to the engine block. Reason for this is that the starter and the glowplugs (your two main power hogs) both ground to the block, so instead of daisy-chaining the grounds like the positives are, it makes much more sense (at least to me) to have each battery ground directly to the block. For that matter, I remember reading on FTE that someone added a second positive cable to their starter, and fed it up to their passenger-side battery, thus eliminating the loses that may be occuring with the factory daisy-chain setup. You can most definitely add an "equalizing" negative cable between the batteries if you want to, it will not hurt a thing, but it probably won't help much either.

 

[leftcoastjeff]

thanks

Thank you again, the GPC wire is a good idea.

LCjeff

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Oh yes, when my truck had just the factory wires it never went into afterglow, after I added the big cable to the relay all of sudden she was doing an afterglow just like she's supposed to. Also, since you have an '87 truck, check the big connector near your A/C drier cylinder, this is what the glowplugs power wires go through and they like to corrode and melt it - I actually took my wires off that connector and butt-connected the two sides together, this way they have a good solid connection all the way to the relay and at the same time they do not attempt to melt down the connector with the rest of the wires.

 

[leftcoastjeff]

Will do, thanks,

LCjeff

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

LCAM-01XA already said it pretty good, so just go with that.