Why the Big 3 Wire upgrade should be the Big 4, 1-616-785-7990 

Don't remove the battery from a modern running car. You risk burning out the on board computer. Batteries store and make energy from chemical reactions. Capacitors store energy in an electric field created by separating opposite charges. They do similar things but not in the same way. A simple capacitor can be made with two metal plates separated by an insulator. Electrolytic capacitors are manufactured by creating an oxide on one plate that serves as a separator/insulator. That is done by an electrochemical reaction which is never intentionally reversed for the capacitors lifetime. In a storage battery the electrochemical reaction cycles through charge and discharge cycles until it can no longer hold a significant charge.

***** Other than using ultra caps there is no replacement for a storage battery in a car except anther kind of battery. You need a lot of power for a short time to turnover the engine with the starter motor. You could use a windup spring with a hand crank I supose.

Okay Years ago I had a Chrysler Corp vehicle with an amp meter. Once you started the vehicle you could tell if the battery was charging by looking at the amp meter. The size of the wires you need for any application is usually governed by the acceptable voltage drop and the heat generated in the wire. Both of these factor are controlled by the current through the wire. Heat is controlled by the size and type of wire and current passing through it. Some insulation covers can withstand more heat. While current, length, size, and type control voltage drop. More current the greater the drop. The longer the wire the greater the voltage drop. The bigger the wire the lower the voltage drop. Copper's conductivity is better than aluminum, nickel is plated over copper as a way to discourage oxidation of copper. Gold is best but very expensive. Silver is more expensive than copper but is easily oxidised. Some specialty wires use copper plated steel or steel strand alloys for a single strand in a multi strand wire, or other specialty alloys.

from the video i just watched before this 1 is alternator to battery 2 is battery to body ground 3 is engine block to body ground and 4 would be alternator to battery ground

1) Battery to body 2-3) Alternator to to battery -/+ 4) Motor to chassis

legendary504 Yes, when the bridge rectifier splits the AC current into DC the positive goes out through the positive battery post and the negative is dumped into the rear housing. If you cannot connect to the rear housing just connect as close to the rear housing as you can.

To the mounting or metal sleeve that attaches it to the bracket should be good also

Legendary504 ...great explanation, let me add some more points..1) the alternator is a three fase machine, so the bridge rectifier inside is in fact a three fase rectifier...... The machines negative (the Back of the alternator) is the same voltage level as the battery negative, so by connecting the Back of the alternator directly to the battery negative is the most favourable way of electrical connection.. O, yes one more thing; electrons/electricity are not 'flowing' with 300,000km a sec.....the electrical effect is going forward with that speed. the hopping of electrons in a cable, if visible, can be followed with the eye.....strange, but thru.....best regards..

The way I usually see it is a wire from the battery negative to the frame, and from that junction have two connections, one to the block and the other to the alternator.

alternatorman So have one neg wire and use a distributor block for the block and alternator?

Jesse Cruz I got it. Thanks

This original question of needing a whopping 3 negative wires running from the battery was never even answered.

The mount ground isn't a reliable ground. There are multiple mating surfaces that the power has to pass through, and after years of corrosion you lose your ground connection. A direct cable connection from the back of the alternator to the battery negative is a reliable ground.

alternatorman thank you sir for bringing this topic to the table. lets assume the absolute best possible ground setup. 1 - ground battery directly to chassis/frame (this being the only wire at battery negative) 2 - ground motor to frame at shortest possible distance (preferably by itself) 3 - ground alternator casing to frame at shortest possible distance (preferably by itself) 4 - attach fused power wire from battery positive to alternator positive do you think anything is wrong with what ive just listed? do you agree that it is best to isolate all grounds and keep them as short as possible? i think my main question is...cant everything you want grounded, be grounded completely by itself including the battery? thank you very much!

alternatorman in some cars (like my 03 mustang gt) the alternator is actually bolted strait to the engine so only need to do big 3 upgrade would you agree?

+250PICKLE This actually makes much more sense to me. Less wasteful.

Making a closed loop is not wise, if something goes wrong, everything does, let's say your amp fries, your ecu might too, your battery might break. This is very basic as I have little time, I do not think i will comment this further as I'm lazy and forgetfull.

SickTheory Not really. You can run it to the grounding point on your frame or engine block. Having ground run through the frame/body just isn't as good.

alternatorman Thanks for the reply! would you recommend also running a bigger guage wire from the (+) alternator to the positive side of the battery?

I,ve built transmissions for 23 years . Also if electricity has to flow through trans. it will eat up the trans. bushings.

Atreyu Auryn If you are not powering much you can use the chassis for the ground but if you are powering something like a High Wattage stereo amp or winch or snow plow that takes a lot of power then the chassis is not going to be good enough

We don't recommend grounding to the chassis alone. It's okay if you run the alternator ground directly to the chassis ground cable.

I would mess around with what you changed first.

BigDirtyBasterd No, you do not fuse the negative cable. You do fuse the positive, this is why you use a much larger positive wire so you can use a larger fuse. Fuses are restrictive to current flow so you need a bigger positive wire so you can use a bigger fuse.

alternatorman what amount of fuse i put?

also use contact grease to prevent further corrosion.

The rectifier does 'send' current to ground, otherwise the circuit would be incomplete. If you think of electrical current like water, AC is a 'push-pull', the water doesn't really flow, it just moves back and forth. The rectifier is like a series of one-way valves that convert that push pull into a steady stream.

It is one big conductor, but it's not a very good conductor. The conductivity of steel is 6.99e6 S/m, where copper has a conductivity of 5.96e7, meaning copper is roughly 10 times more conductive than steel. Not to mention the numerous contacts points in a chassis which corrode and further reduce conductivity.