Posted by Fat Boy on March 23, 03 at 10:57:24:
In Reply to: 2/0 AWG Battery cable replacement details (really, really long) posted by Fat Boy on March 22, 03 at 00:21:16:
As I said in my original post, I needed to get some new clipss to hold the postive-to-positive cable on top the fan shroud. Well, I picked those up on Tuseday, but didn't have a chance to mount them until this morning, so I haven't really driven the Sub all week. Today was my first significant drive (60 miles to work, where i am now...), and let me tell ya... The difference is amazing. This is probably the second best upgrade I've done to the Suburban (behind the high-output cooling upgrades).
Before the upgrade, on those days where she'd actually start, if I turned on lights, radio, and both ACs, all the gauges would drop about 30%-40%. Volts went from about 13.5 to about 10.5 to 11. Oil pressure would drop about 5-10PSI and gas would drop 1/8-1/4 of a tank. Funny thing, though... Coolant temp remained almost constant.
With the rewiring (and I haven't yet done the lead to the power distribution block), the voltmeter is reading a notch above 14 at idle with nothing on, and drops half a notch below 14 with EVERYTHING on (radio, f&r AC, lights, hazards, cigarette lighter, etc.). The AC fans blow harder, and the truck seems to have a little more pep to it. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I wonder if the alternator was drawing a lot more power from crank trying to keep up with the electrical needs through bad cables. I expect things will get even better when I replace the last two 8 AWG wires with 2 or 4 AWG wire.
All together, this cost me about $80 or so for the supplies, and it was worth every penny. Now, in addition to knowing I can properly fix this stuff, I'm pretty sure I won't have to for a good long while.
More to come...
Fat Boy