Centech wiring, explorer alternator

[ELWOOD]

Hey guys..I know this has been asked before, but I am confused and want to get it right. I have a new centech harness and did the explorer serpentine. How do you hook this alternator up to the centech? I need a put this wire here and this one there, idiot proof answer. Diagrams aren't helping much either.

 

[oldskool]

Centech

Yellow wire on Centech harness goes directly to Battery. Green wire from Centech harness goes to green wire on Alternator. Yellow wire on Alternator goes to Power post on Alternator and then over to Battery. I can send pic's if you need them. It is a 4G Alt you can also find Schematic on Ford fuel injection web site.

 

[ELWOOD]

thanks..pics would be nice too. Did you use a larger wire from alt to battery with the maxi fuse? I see that in some posts. Thanks for the wire locations, I think I can figure that out now.

 

[oldskool]

Centech

I didn't use a maxie fuse direct hookup. Not sure size of cable from Alt to Battery. Picked it up from Napa Auto, just need correct length. I have a picture of battery but it really dosen't show much.

 

[DirtDonk]

You do need to make/buy your own charge wire from the alternator's main output to the battery, just like you thought, and oldskool said.
I like to use protection (for the wires!) on the ones I do, and Ford uses fusible links from the factory, but a lot of people don't and haven't had any problems yet.
Up to you, but keep protection in mind. For the wires!

You can use plain old battery/starter cable from your local auto parts store, or make your own from battery or welding cable. The typical gauge of the store bought ones, around here at least, tend to be 6 gauge at the small end, and 2 gauge at the large end. Most of the ones with eyelets at both ends (starter cable) that I see are either 6ga or 4ga.
Either one of those is more than sufficient in the lengths that we're talking about (1 to 2 feet) here.
The longer you plan to make it, the larger gauge you should use.

I think most of the people here seem to lke using 4ga cable. That's probably a good size to make sure you never fall short when you really need it. Some even use 2/0 gauge welding cable too. Just because they can. Yeah, it's overkill, but as we say when out in the middle of nowhere, there's no such thing as overkill when it comes to the size of your battery cables and the number of your grounds.

Just bought another batch of 100' welding cable myself, for making up systems.
I like 1/0 for the mains, and 6 gauge for the supplementary branches. With welding cable, those sizes (smaller outside diameter than standard battery cable of the same gauge) seem to be a good compromise between capacity, flexibility, and size

Good luck. Sounds like you're almost there.

Paul