hey duders, Came into a stretch of 4guage cable for free. Thinking of using it to run power from the battery in the engine compartment to the interior for accessories and whatnots. Any thoughts on this? Bad idea/good idea/better idea?
I had run a 10 or 12 guage last year for the same purpose but never hooked anything up. You're thinking just stay with that? (Should do me 20 amps give or take) I've got power seats, 40w stereo amp, gauges, stuff like that I'll prob run off of it
Hey bud, Can you expand on this alittle? Is this in addition to either in-line fuses or a fuse box? Also, what do you mean by melt down?
"Esquire," If you string a larger gauge feed line from your battery to a termination point, you run the risk of having an electrical fire unless you place a breaker as close to the source as possible. If the insulation on the wire is ever damaged and the wire grounds, it will draw as much power as it can until it is stopped. This could result in the entire wire melting away its insulation and starting a fire or arcing until something else catches on fire. The original Ford harness has wires that have fuseable links and are designed to break the connection before drawing too much power. I used something similar to this: https://www.waytekwire.com/products/1366/Circuit-Breakers/&Reset-Method=Type-I---Automatic&Amps=15 Micah
Ok - I'm gonna talk this out for a second: Sounds like I want a breaker near the battery for power being run from the battery to the interior for accessories. From the breaker I'd run to a fuse box or some power distribution point to get to the different accessories. Sounds like I'd want two fuse boxes (one constant power and one keyed power). Constant power hooked to electric seat, electric locks, ect... Keyed power hooked to stereo, electric windows, floor shift indicator, ect... Then independent relays in the engine bay near the battery for the electric choke, electric fan, and headlights (hi and low beam). If all of that is correct: - Then I'd need to figure out how to setup relays for the keyed power interior accessories (one large relay before the fuse box or independent relays for each accessory?) -Whether to do independent relays or look into an auxiliary relay/fuse box (because I'm thinking relays for each accessory is probably what you'll say to do) Maybe something like this? http://www.delcity.net/store/Sealed...p_kw=&mp_mt=&gclid=CK7YrYLopc0CFRY8gQodyUkAng Breaker idea sounds like gold - as I don't like fires. Big thumbs up to that comment!
It sounds like you are on the right track but a lot of work. There are some on the board who have rewired their entire car. I would look to them for advice. Your plans appear much more complicated than the original post of just bringing in a feed wire. Micah
Yea, I'm going down the rabbit hole a bit. Wiring up my choke and fan relay as we speak - the other stuff can wait. Thanks!
Omg - so nice. I think every time I'm under the dash about how nice it would be to rip all the wires out and start from scratch. Omg - $465
it's sweet.. the Guy that installed mine had all the ford connectors. he ran the new wires to each stock plug and replaced the terminals in each plug including the headlights and tail lights... to make it even sweeter I installed these... http://www.dakotadigital.com/index....t_id=224/category_id=416/mode=prod/prd224.htm
I'm a poor poor man lol. That stuff is AWESOME! Think 17,000 RPM is a high enough limit for your gauge tho? My car is still in the "post-apocalyptic phase." Once I rip out all of the extra wires the previous owner put in for his stereo it should be alot cleaner and easier. He zip tied them EVERYWHERE! Also update: The 10 gauge wire I had run, that I thought I had run for battery power, was actually tied into 12v keyed power. I guess I did that last year to trigger relays in the engine bay. I ran it through what will be my aux fuse box - so that was weird...... I'll have to fix that when I install accessories. I'll use it for 12v keyed for now. Took a year off of the Mav when I got into lawschool - now I'm looking back at all the crazy stuff I did
