I have a over heating / hot Ground wire from the Altenator ground. The ground wire is anchored on the frame. What Gauge wire should be used for grounding this 1985 ford motocraft altenator. Altenator is three wires and a ground. Is this why my ground is overheating?
You have to have a good ground going from battery to motor to frame & body............. I would also check to make sure you have all 4 wires going to the rite post on Alt. Get a wiring schematic.......
A 10-12 gauge wire would be good enough for the alt ground wire.I can't see how that wire could be getting hot. The only thing that could probably be the cause of that wire getting hot is lack of ground straps.Maybe look into that.
You do need a motor to frame ground strap. Also a motor to body strap. Typically there is no alternator ground wire, it grounds through the mount on the motor... but I have seen cases where the alternator motor mount does not provide a good ground so a wire from the alternator case to the frame or battery neg is advised....
you can't have too many grounds. I would bet your battery ground to engine is not adequate. clean off all paint and corrosion
I had a Chevy truck where the neg battery cable went to the motor, but the was an extra smaller wire that went from the neg cable to a fender bolt. While cranking the engine, it was slow. When the motor started, there was a puff of smoke from under the hood. The smaller wire to the fender fried. I bought a new neg cable and discovered the strap to the motor was loose.
Make sure your connections are clean. Resistance = heat! Make sure your wire is good, screw traditional and ditch that "vintage" 30 year old wire for something that's still conductive! Good wire + clean connection + tight connection + proper battery ground = no grounding issues!
Yes again to proper grounding from Bat to frame and frame to engine. I've seen a few guys fry there shifter cable from not having a ground to the engine.
This statement changes everything, you need to ground the starter to the - post of the battery, The starter is "finding" a ground at the alternator ground, not good....
The solenoid is grounded and starter motor is attached to the block and has only one wire going to it from the solenoid. So how do I ground the starter?
The ground cable that we all are talking about can be bolted anywhere on the block. With that said the whole block is grounded therefore the starter is grounded also because its bolted to the block. Hope this helps you understand a lil better.
Run a heavy ground wire from the battery ground (negative terminal?) to the engine, then ground the engine to the frame.
The important thing is that there is a BIG wire from the battery to the engine. When I am running battery cables from the battery, I run a positive cable from the battery to the solenoid, and I run a ground from the negative terminal to one of the starter mount bolts, I catch my frame and body grounds from here. Some folks will run the negative cable from the neg post on the battery to the frame, and then jumper to the engine block. IMO either way will work, but you have to consider that the ground will need to carry as much current as the positive, so every link of the ground needs to be the same size (or capable of carrying the same current) as the positive cable. If a small wire is used anywhere in the "chain" to the starter, it is insufficient, a chain is as strong as it's weakest link, and this tired saying is aptly applied here. That is why I go from the neg post to a mounting bolt on the starter with my grounds, this takes a whole host of possibilities for "weak links" out of the picture. If the wire size etc. seems ok for your grounds, a bad cable end is a likely culprit. Simply enough, you have a bad ground, no doubt, either by omission or defect, you just need to track it down. as proof, you can run a jumper cable from the negative post of the battery to a mounting bolt on the starter and your alt ground wont get hot anymore.
Today, I have purchased the strap for motor to Frame. The 12V battery is under the seat, in a box with the Negative grounded to the all metal floor. Under the floor where the Negative bolt is located I will mount another strap to the frame. All to bare metal. Battery > body > frame & Motor > frame. I will make the ground from the altenator a new 10 gauge. Sometimes it is the stuff like this that makes me glad I found this hokey *** message board. thanks, Hal Muchler
Should be, negative Battery to frame, frame to engine, with battery cable size wire or straps. Body can be grounded from battery or frame or engine with a #10 wire. The alternater is automaticlly grounded because the whole engine block is a source of ground. Just going to add this last line because it seems your not understanding what ground is. If you do sorry ahead of time. With all the proper grounding completed, anything that is metal on the car will be ground.
I have aluminum heads on my car. When i hooked up my ground strap to them the car wouldnt start. When i reached down to find out why the strap kept sparking i got a hell of a bite!! The strap was hot as a fresh weld! man that hurt. I just moved it down to the block and its been fine.
That is the way I do it, even with my battery in the trunk. less of a chance for something to go wrong.
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