So why did I let him put in a freakin' battery tray? I just don't feel comfortable arguing with mechanics....yet that wire is a prime example. Even I knew, looking at it, it was too small. Then I got home and looked at the tray...not even new. I also should've insisted on a 50 oz harmonic balancer insteed of 28 oz, so she shakes like a polaroid picture now. She's always worse after a visit to the "shop."
D
To start with, I don't know you. So, taking anything I say personally would be stupid.
Understand that people being "had" by crooked, incompetent mechanics is equal male vs female. The days of "Dad" knowing about cars and it was "Mom" or "Sis" getting taken advantage of are over. "Dad" knows nothing about cars, and never really did, but isn't expected to pretend to by society these days. "Mom" isn't expected to play helpless either though like she used to be pressured to by society. So that's over with. You're not getting bad service because your a woman.
Everyone is getting bad service. Knowing that, insist on good service, and when you know something is wrong or not done to your standards, make sure they fix it the way you want it before you pay. That's not "arguing" with the mechanic, it's getting the mechanic to do his goddamn job.
You need to go back and get the right harmnoic balancer put on.
If the crank is from a pre early 80's (I can't remember the year split) 302 or any 351w, then you need the 28oz. If it's a 5.0 swapped from something early 80's or newer, then the 50oz. It will cause damage running it with the wrong balancer, and they need to swap it for free with the right one. Don't just sit there and be bitter about them doing crap work, make them fix it right. That's called a "comeback" in the industry, and it's regular practice to fix it for free if the work sucked to start with. The customer-you- has to come back and demand the job be done right for that system to work.
Enough with the "woe is me, helpless woman being taken advantage of by sleazy men" side of the thread. It's old, tired, and annoying. I've got an older cousin like that. Plenty smart, science teacher, but lets contractors and mechanics walk all over her because she feels the need to play the helpless woman game. Fuck that noise, stand up for yourself and get the job done right!
Threatening to sell it hurts no one but you, so don't even bother. You know you're throwing away your "investment" if you do, so why entertain those thoughts? With a little work and a little learning, you should be plenty capable of fixing it yourself.
Alternator outputs are usually run straight to the battery through either a dedicated maxi-fuse or a fusible link (wire with a calibrated weak spot). Many manufactures do that in the under-hood fuse box, older fords tended to have a fusible link hooked to the battery side of the starter solenoid. This wire and the fuse, which should be rated less than the wire, should be big enough to handle the max output of the alternator. A discharged battery can soak up an intese amount of amperage, as can running large loads like winches. You don't want the alt to be on the same fuse as the rest of your loads because if the alt dies and the fuse pops, you can still run the car off the battery for a while. The way you have it wired now, with the alt feeding the dash (load) side of the main fuse is really bad because it defeats the point of the main fuse. You want all your power sources on the same side and all the loads on the other of the main fuse.
1 wire alternators are immune to piss-poor wiring jobs because the regulator circuit is monitoring the voltage at the output terminal of the alternator. As long as the alt can keep that terminal at 14.7 volts, it regulates the output amperage down to keep that stable. If there's high resistance in the wire leading from that terminal to the battery, the battery may be only seeing 10v output. This is called voltage drop, and it's key to how circuits work.
Normal alternators have their regulators referencing battery voltage, through a separate wire. Take this setup, put the crappy wire the 1 wire alt had on it, and it will up the output amperage on the alternator terminal until the battery voltage reaches 14.7v. Remember the 4.7v voltage drop across that wire? That now turns into a load between the alternator cranking out amps and the battery. So that wire heats up, the insulation melts off, and fire ensues. That's also why you put a fuse smaller than the current capacity of the wire in.
To make a 1 wire alt work properly, you need to have a connection to the battery that's large enough to have less than 0.5 v drop at full load. So when the alt is cranking out 100 amps at 14.7v, the battery should be seeing at least 14.2v. So that calls for decent wire. Factory is often 8g, or a pair of 10g wires run in parallel, remembering that the higher the number gauge, the smaller the wire. A decent 6g wire should work as long as it's not wrapped in a harness. 4g would be better, but probably overkill. Good crimps, ring terminals, and clean, tight, connections. Remember that the ground circuit between the alternator bracket and the battery has to be matched too.
You can probably buy the wire you need from an autoparts store as battery cable. They come in pre-crimped lengths, you need one to go straight from the battery side post of the starter solenoid to the alternator stud. Leave some sag in the run so that the engine can move around without tugging on the wire.
Then use a multimeter to check voltage drops. Check that the alternator is producing 14.5-.7v at 1100rpms (stick a screwdriver between the idle stop and the lever on the carb). That test is between the output stud of the alt and the case, then check that between the posts of the battery is at least 14.2v or best equal to what you measured at the alt. Keep in mind a 1 wire alt will only charge as much as it's connection the battery will allow. If the wire is bad, the alternator will be hardly working to keep it's end up at 14.7, and the battery may be getting nothing.
