The Good Ol' Big 3

The_Grimy_One · Post by **The_Grimy_One** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:09 am

Ok, so I am being somewhat lazy, and honestly have not searched the whole site, but I did search around the How To section and did not find the info.

My question is, is it possible to upgrade the alternator to battery wire or add another one on an 03 Dodge Neon SE. I know my car uses a special plug and play alternator, so I am really not sure how this is possible. I have done the Big 6 Grounding already.

I am going to buy an 03 PT Cruiser Alt (120 amps) next week and want to know if there is a way to accomplish the larger wire to help it out.

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 2:03 am

i ran a 4G straight from my PTNA alternator to the battery. all you need is a ring terminal on both ends of the cable.

just make sure you ziptie the cable out of the way of the exhaust system.....

The_Grimy_One · Post by **The_Grimy_One** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 2:45 am

NiteHawk wrote:i ran a 4G straight from my PTNA alternator to the battery. all you need is a ring terminal on both ends of the cable.

just make sure you ziptie the cable out of the way of the exhaust system.....

Ok, but if I am not mistaken, dont we have a special plug, that goes from the alt, to the starter? Where did you bolt it to the Alt?

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:40 am

no special plug...there is a stud and nut on it....thats where

nineball · Post by **nineball** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:59 pm

depending on the size of your wire/ring terminal you may need to break off a little of the plastic piece around the alt. i used 0g and had to in order for the ring to fit inside.

the stock setup goes battery - fuse box - starter - fused relay - alternator. as nh said there is no harm in running a dedicated line from the battery to the alt, taht's how the setup is in my car.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:51 pm

A better description of the stock routing is PDC - battery - starter - fusible link equipped cable to the alternator output.

But the answer is still the same.

The only risk of the dedicated alternator to battery wire, is there is no fusible link to protect the system from a shorted alternator, or from a dead short killing the alternator.

As for fire risk, there is no factory protection from the battery to the starter terminal, so it is sort of a mute point. (The amperage need to crank the engine will fry most fusible links.)

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 12:13 am

my appologies...i did shave down the sides of the ring terminal on mine a little bit to make it fit.....i just used a dremel w/ a reinforced cutoff disc...worked fine for me...

The_Grimy_One · Post by **The_Grimy_One** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:41 pm

Thanks for the input guys. I will look at the new alternator when I get it. And I assume you ran a fuse between the Alt and the battery, if so how big was the fuse?

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:58 pm

I used a 100a for the alt and a 250 for the starter.

NickKo · Post by **NickKo** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:06 pm

NiteHawk wrote:i ran a 4G straight from my PTNA alternator to the battery. all you need is a ring terminal on both ends of the cable.

Damn.

Too bad I didn't think of this earlier.

I used to have a 'shortcut setup' like this, on my old 1968 Chry.300.
The factory ammeter gauge on the old MoPars were famous for getting fried, which would kill the entire charging system & the whole car.
So, the previous owner, simply bypassed the system, and ran a wire directly from the output terminal of the alternator, to the positive terminal of the battery.
He drove it around like that for years, and so did I...... No problems.

I knew that doing such a 'shortcut setup' would work on an older MoPar, but didn't think to try it on a Neon.
Looks like I will be upgrading to an N/A PT alternator on my '98 Neon, much sooner than planned..... like very soon.

Of course, I can always add an appropriate fusible link, because I am a bit paranoid.

Thanks for the idea, Nitehawk !!

- Nick