The Big 3 of Wiring

[Bones526]

This is mainly for servo, but anyone else who knows should drop a line as well.

The Big 3 Are: 1. negative battery wire to ground - just replace the negative batt. terminal and wire and ground it to the factory location 2. engine block to ground - replace the ground wire from the engine block to the chasie with a bigger wire (maybe 4 guage) 3. alternator to batt - add a fused wire from the postive post on you alternator (the one comming from the battery) to the postive terminal on your battery. DO NOT exchange wires just add a extra one. make sure it fused the same size as your factory fuse. hope thats helps

My question is, where do i find these things in a protege? Obviously i know where the battery is, but i don't know where the alternator is (or what it looks like for that matter.) I don't know where the engine block ground wire is either.

I also don't know specifics on how to physically wire this stuff, if it is more difficult than just screwing terminals together on the ends of scrap 4 ga from my kit.

 

[servoeyes]

Check out the install of 1st Mp3's kit...someone did a how-to. His kit covers 2 of those...the last is the alternator which you kinda have to find yourself, as I don't have a 99 pro!

If you know what an alternator looks like and how it works you should be able to find it...it's belt driven, so look around the engine bay. You'll find the wires that run from there to the batt pretty easily.

 

[FrigginGLI]

Ive done one of the Big 3 so far. Battery ground. Made a slight difference in the stabilizing of the voltage. Steady at around 14.2 without the Ac on now. Before I was at 13.8

The alternator ground is prolly more important thoe.
But I can't reach it without getting below the car.

 

[smithers_0990]

Alternator is on the left side of the car if your looking at the motor.

 

[Bones526]

Check out the install of 1st Mp3's kit...someone did a how-to. His kit covers 2 of those

If you don't mind, give me a link to that, b/c i didn't find anything in the how-to section except a thing about wiring an amplifier kit, which was helpful, but not what i was looking for exactly.

 

[servoeyes]

Linkage

Creds to Panzozo for taking the pics! Enjoy!

 

[parks853]

Hey bones check this s*** out http://www.protege5.com/vbb230/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45141
when I hooked 2ga up to the alternator I had to take a piece lose from the top of the motor to get my arm in there. The positive post on the alternator has a grey cap on it. I am not sure how to expain what it looks like.. like said before it has the belt around it. it is grey (cast color) it is between the engine and the firewall if you will. on the passenger side. hope that helps.

also here is a link I foudn on the web. Just a random one of an alternator. it will look similar to this http://www.starteralternator.com/alternators.htm

 

[parks853]

Guess servo beat me to it again. oh well.. you get the link twice.

*edit* if you are going to add all these wires I would suggest just buying the ground kit from 1st mp3. He has the kit set up nice, and panzozo has that how to that will make the instalation very easy. just an idea.

 

[Bones526]

wow, i just read that how-to and it looks like an awful lot of work! sorry but i'm lazy.

would i even be able to do that without buying copious amounts of extra power wire? i was hoping i could just make some short connections with the leftovers of my amp kit. but this how-to is for installing a standalone grounding kit right?

maybe i'm misunderstanding the how-to, but are you supposed to run ground wires to 10 different locations in the engine compartment? i don't really understand how this all works.

 

[parks853]

well.. that is the how to that you need for using the kit that "1st mp3 in NH" sales. Some people do the kit with only 5 wires. or sometimes six. The one he makes is just really good. It covers everything. The kit just helps get everythign grounded. You should have noticed that the grounds go from one side of the car to the other. all the small factory grounds were replaced and alot added. all the critical stuff is grounded better. the grounds are basically the return path for current. a circuit has to have a complete path for current to flow. Thicker wires have less resistance which makes it easier for current flow.

if you search for stuff on the site there are alot of post about the ground kits. People have done them alot of different ways.

but you can use the left over wire from the amp kit. You just have to crimp ends on the wires. That is what I am gong to do. I have 2ga from the alt. to my battery and my battery to my system already. when the stuff comes in I will have the ground kit like the one 1st sales but I am going to use 2ga to the fuse box.

 

[Bones526]

yeah, i just wanted to use some of my 4ga power cable from my amp kit and do the "big 3" that servo had told me about earlier. I'm not looking for a complete ground kit, i just want to make sure the power wiring from my alternator to my battery is big enough to handle the 57 amps that my subs are gonna be adding. these so called "big 3" were suggested to me as a sort of alternative to a stiffening capacitor for dimming headlights.

 

[parks853]

well.. just do the big 3. If that dont help then you can work on the others later. I would pass on the cap also. The big three will be easy to do. like you said just use the wire from your kit, and replace those wires. the how to shows where the ground wires are, and hopefully the replies have helped you to find the alternator. lata

 

[Bones526]

Check out the install of 1st Mp3's kit...someone did a how-to. His kit covers 2 of those

This how-to is for a mazdaspeed though, and i just have a regular old 99 pro 1.6L, so won't the location of my engine block to ground connection different?

 

[servoeyes]

slightly...if you look around enough down there, then you'll find a good bolt on the engine to work with. That's pretty much what 1sty did!

 

[Bones526]

there should be a ground wire coming off of my engine block somewhere though right?

 

[servoeyes]

yep. it should be coming off of your battery's negative terminal.

 

[Bones526]

what? no, that is #1, i'm talking about #2: engine block to ground. refer back to my first post on this thread if you don't know what i mean.

 

[parks853]

there should be a ground wire coming off of my engine block somewhere though right?

I am not srue what how much your engine is like or not like the 2.0, but I have a ES not a MSP and the how to worked fine for me. everything was the same. if your setup is similar there should be a wire comign from teh passenger side of the engine compartment over to the engine block/mount. look in the how to again. it is teh first wire that is hooked up.

 

[Bones526]

i'm assuming i need to get under the car to find this thing?

 

[parks853]

I just put my ground kit in last night (and made all the wires). you do not have to get under the car.. only under the hood. I installed 9 ground wires, and put a 2Ga over to the fuse box. nothing was done from under the car.

borrowed from panzozo's how to.. thanks panzozo

this is the picture of the engine stock ground. this is on the left side of your car. it bolts under the resivor with the yellow cap. and to the big ass bolt right next to the motor.

*edit* left side if you are facing the car. passenger side which I guess technically is the right side