Hi,

I'm going to be upgrading the wiring under the hood shortly (the Big 3), and was wondering if I should have a fuse between the alternator and the battery, and if so, what size of fuse it should be.

Thanks.

 

Yes! Fuse the wire on the battery end. This way if something does go wrong, your battery should be OK (your alternator may not fare so well). This is better than an exploded battery. As for fuse size, it depends on wire size (you fuse the wire). For example if you're using 0 awg (very common for the big 3), the max. recommended fuse rating is 325 A (maximum rating). If you're running a modest system, you can go with a fuse size that will suffice (add up your total current draw). Check out www.bcae1.com. This is required reading! Cheers.

 

I'm not running anything huge on my system...a 4x65W channel and a 1x350W channel amp...would I be okay using 4 AWG cable?

 

how many amps does your alt put out?

 

Honestly, not sure. It's stock alt. for 97 Grand Prix.

 

OK, I did a quick bit of research. I believe my alternator outputs 105 Amps.

 

ok well u should be fine with 4 awg. but since your going to all the work of rewiring, u might as well just use 2 awg just to be safe and then if u ever upgrade u wont have to go through all the work again.

 

Isn't the stock wiring already 4 awg?

 

The ground from the block to battery is but the to batterey and alternater to battery is like 10 awg...on my olds it was anyway, assuming the pontiacs the same .