There are three or four articles floating around in the various Dodge sites that have some real good pictures of what is actually happening within the bulk-head connector.

What you see in the pictures is plumb truck-burning scary.

There are several TECH articles showing how good BIG wire has been ran straight through the fire-wall and completely bypassing the bulk-head.


After all, the bulk-head connector was not put there because it was an excellent means of conducting electricity through the fire-wall, but because it was the cheapest quickest penny-savingest means of getting the vehicle off of the assembly-line and into someone's payment-book.

 

[QUOTE=BearKiller;2507093]There are three or four articles floating around in the various Dodge sites that have some real good pictures of what is actually happening within the bulk-head connector.

What you see in the pictures is plumb truck-burning scary.

Oh yeah, they can definitley burn a car (or truck) to the ground.

 

Thunderhog ill do your test and see, if it doesnt pulse then im assuming its in the bulk head, ill clean that as well, ill let you know, thanks guys.

 

How many of the wires under the hood are even good for something? I know on my truck there seems to be a lot of wires for a truck that needs only 1 to run! I want to clean up that mess and make the whole thing a little more user friendly.
DS79

 

You need to go into the "sticky" and read a thread titled "Fuse-Link Abatement" or "Cleaning Up The Fuse-Links" or some such.

I just got done (well, not really done completely) cleaning up a rat's nest fire-trap in the wife's truck.

My next mission in that category is to open up that bulk-head plug and see which and what I am going to rewire straight through, by-passing the mess.


I am also moving all the circuits to a completely different, re-located, fuse-block, either under one of the seats, or behind a seat.

On many big trucks, the fuse-block and terminal-bar is located on the rear cab-wall, behind the driver-seat, in a lot handier to access position; none of that laying in the floor, straining your neck, stuff falling in your eyes; you can trouble-shoot and rewire while standing up straight.

 

If you were to follow the factory 6-gauge cable that runs from the BATT stud on the rear of the alternator through a bullet connector and winds it way around the engine bay where it is connected to a 10-gauge Fuse Link (yes I said 10-gauge) on the drivers fender where it again becomes a 6-gauge wire finally passing through another bullet connector and arriving at the battery terminal.

From the LOAD side of the 10-gauge Fuse Link power is fed into the cab to the ignition circuit.

Tell me how the alternator can push 120-amps of current through a 6-gauge wire and then through a 10-gauge fuse link finally arriving at the battery?

The alternator was not meant to charge anywhere near its maximum output for more that a few minuets, pushing that much current through a small wire (resistance) will create heat.

When I still had the 120-amp Nippondenso and before I replaced it with my now 160-amp Leece Neville alternator I removed all of the resistance by replacing the wire using some #4 welding cable, when I installed the Leece Neville I upgraded the wire to a #2-gauge welding cable.

I crimped on copper lugs to both ends, covered then using adhesive lined shrink tubing and connected one end to the BATT stud on the alternator and the opposite end connected directly to the positive battery terminal through a 200-amp T-Fuse, I installed the fuse to protect the cable incase of a catastrophic failure of the diodes.

I also have a #2 Ground wire from the alternator to the grounding point of the battery cable and a #2 Ground wire from the grounding point to a ½” bolt with lock washers and Nylock nut to the frame rail.

Doing this will assure that all of the current from the alternator will get to the battery and not be wasted as heat.

I am sure that you are thinking that this is bit overkill, but this just the way I do things and I can tell you that my lights do not flicker.

I would recommend upgrading the alternator wiring to anyone capable of doing so.

This will kind of give you an idea of the size of my wiring, if you were to arc these to ground you could create a Black Hole.



I have a fuse holder for the 200-amp T-Fuse that is on the end of the #2-gauge stub that I will someday install.




Jim

 

ALLRIGHT JIM! I used 0 gauge because I had some. Right from the alternator to the battery. NO resitance there! Overkill?, yup! And you are correct, you cannot push that much current through that small wire, at least, not for long! add the weak terminal connection at the bulkhead and POOF!

 

I spy with my little eye an interesting gizmo between the battery and fan-shroud, right beside the GREEN GROUND wire, probably fastened to the shroud; what, pray tell, is that gizmo ??

Thanks.

 

Bearkiller, look at the high end stereo places. Those guys with the zillion watt stereos have use these thing. Probably the easiest place to get one.
You can see Jims just to the rear of the battery, looks like a fuel filter.

 

By the way Jim, GREAT location for the 2nd battery! Guess what I am fabbing up this weekend? =)

 

I know this is an old post. I can not get my dang lights stop flickering. The bulkhead connector looks perfect, i installed a mopar blue reg and still does it. Even the charging gauge jumps in time with the flickering,,, any more ideas?