..............Power system....................

When you are adding a high power stereo this is a good upgrade to do. The factory grounds are normally small so even if you run a 4 awg wire to your amp, if the vehicles electrical system is grounded with a 12 awg wire it doesn't matter. A big three upgrade is one of the first things that should be considered before getting a better battery or adding a HO alt. Save your money on caps and put them towards these three.

Sorry for the dirty engine, mom didn't keep her clean under the hood.... I was going to throw some under drive pullies on but I didn't have the impact wrench to take the alternator pully off. I took the alternator off and took it to a shop and it took them a couple of seconds. While I had the alt out I figured this would be a good time to upgrade my big 3 power wires on the vehicle. All I have done here is disconnect the battery. In the lower left you can see one of the spots that the factory ground is grounded at the green screw next to the batterys neg termiinal. This is a really small 12 awg wire that I will be keeping in place, while adding a 4 awg ground to help it.

Here you can see the alternator as well as the power wire that comes off of it(black with orange stripe) and goes to the battery. I am going to relocate this wire closer to the radiator to keep it from running directly next to the distributor as well as the spark plug wires. This will make my cable a little longer then the stock cable but the distributor and spark plug wires are an easy place to pick up noise.

I used a 4 awg power wire and ran it from the positive terminal on the battery, across the top of the radiator to the positive terminal of the new 220A alternator. I also upgraded the wire from the battery to the fuse box(it was short and easy).

Here is the finish product around the battery. I scraped the paint off of the chassis and used a bolt and screw with a lock wash to secure it. This will provide a much more secure ground, as well as a bigger one.

You also need to upgrade the ground from the engine/alt to the chassis as this is normally a little smaller then it could be. I decided to use the bolt on the back of the alternator for my spot. This was a convinient spot since I still had the bolt out, and it was right next to the other cable I ran for the power. Of course the paint was scrapped off here as well, and a lock washer was used.

I also upgraded the power wire that goes to the factory fusebox since it was a short run and it looked a little strange with the stock wires there. I moved the stock power wires over to that fusebox location so that the battery terminals looked cleaner. I did add platinum battery terminals and painted portoins of the clear covers to help me see the + and - easier.

The big 3 upgrade is an easy way to upgrade your vehicles electical system. This is a basic upgrade that should be done when adding a larger stereo, or electical upgrade and is money well spent before sinking you money into a cap. I managed to find scrap wire but you can plan on at least $2 a foot for the wire at a local shop, about a dozen ring terminal and some new battery connectors.

Page 2 - how to bypass/integrate into the mach 460 stereo
Page 3 - Radar detector
page 4 - New wheels
Page 5 - Tail light tint
Page 6 - you are here
page 7 - Sub woofer box, voltage display, dist block
page 8 - dynamatting the doors and the 6.5 speaker baffle/enclosure
page 9 - amp rack
page 10 - kick panels
page 11 - details
page 12 - area 51