Re: Beefy ground install (longish)

[RACK <rack@pacbell.net>]

Riley McDowall wrote:
> 
> >  One thing that isn't covered in the Bentley is the inadequecy(sp?) of the
> >grounds on the Scirocco, especially the 16V. Clean all the ground points,
> >and the battery -ve terminal on the main ground strap. As another poster
> >did, rewiring the main ground isn't a bad idea, although simply adding an
> >auxiliary ground wire from the battery -ve to the alternator case can fix
> >the problem. If you don't want to figure out the length of wire to do this,
> >and the location to mount the wire, New Dimensions sells the wire that comes
> >with instructions on how to mount it, that will simplify the procedure.
> 
> I wasn't having any electical problems, but I decided I might as well
> tackle this project anyway since I keep hearing how bunk the grounds are in
> the 16v cars.  I went down to my fave car audio store, bought 10 Phoenix
> Gold 4ga ring terminals, 5ft of red cable, and about 10ft of black cable.
> 
> First I redid the +12v cables from the alternator to the starter and
> starter to battery.  I decided the easiest way to do it would be to just
> add the 4ga cable to the stock 8ga cable.  I tied the new wire to the hoses
> running along the front of the block under the intake manifold, then down
> to the starter.  Since there wasn't a lot of room on that stud on the
> starter, I decided to replace the stock cable running from the starter to
> the battery with a new run of 4ga.
> 
> Next I ran a ground from the alternator case to the negative terminal of
> the battery.  This was easy, I just ran it alongside the positive cable.
> 
> The first ground I replaced ran from the cylinder head (near the cold start
> valve) to the tranny.  It took a while to find where this cable attached to
> the tranny...in the 16v cars it's almost impossible to see this bolt
> looking down from the top.  The best way to get to it is from underneath
> the car, reaching up from behind the trans.  This is also where the ground
> that runs up to the battery terminates.  On its way up to the negative
> terminal it attaches to the body; this point is also visible from under the
> car.  I didn't touch this ground for a couple reasons...
> 
> Bentley was absolutely no help, so all this was discovered by taking stuff
> apart and looking around.  It took me a long time to get this far (3 hours)
> and since I had run out of ring terminals and patience, I left this last
> ground as is; however since it wasn't long enough to reach the terminal on
> my new Optima I snipped it at the point where it emerges from underneath
> the airbox.
> 
> I didn't have any problems before starting all this work, so the payoff
> wasn't readily apparent.  I did notice that my voltmeter now shows more
> than 14v when the alternator is charging at max, which is more than it had
> ever shown before by about .5v.  All that 4 guage looks pretty trick under
> the hood too!  Still, I think I should probably add a ground from the body
> to the battery.
> 
> If anyone can think of anything to add or correct, I'd sure appreciate it!
> It was late at night, and I was kinda making things up as I went >along....
> 
> --
Check the connections on the alternator that go to the built-in
regulator. There is one for ground, and another to sample the output.
Both are critical to proper regulation, make the connections tight.

I also found that 4ga. cables from battery to alternator spiffed up the
electrical system noticably. Watch out for galvanic corrosion on the
alternator bracket bolts caused by conducting ground current to the
block, especially the alloy head.

Ron '88 16V 'Rocco (12.47v before the cable install ;->)
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