Electrical Upgrade COMPLETE!!! - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Curry · 12-11-2006, 06:01 PM

I know those of you who have been following my progress with the car are wondering how my alternator install went. Well let me tell you IT WENT SMOOTHLY! Sorta... lol

Well I have never been messing with the engine before and this swap was not a walk in the park for me. I did manage to pull it off with many a scrape and what not. My back is KILLING me right now but i feel on top of the world. NO MORE JUMPSTARING!!!

Yanked out the old battery:

Big empty hole:

Close up off the ground to chasis:

Out with the old and in with the new:

New alt installed:

Didnt mount it yet but left it there to make sure it works, 2nd battery:

WIRES!:

Everything connected:

Turned the key and BAM!

Curry · 12-11-2006, 07:45 PM

AFter doing this I did run into some problems.

When I started the car I was getting around 12.59 Volts. With the car off I was getting around 12.20

My idle was completely normal.

After leaving it running for about 20 mins, I noticed that the voltage dropped to around 11.20 and then to 10.54

I took the car off and I got 9.63

Anyone know whats going on?

I ran 4 guage wire from the alt to the battery then I left the stock cable in place from the alt.

I then upgraded the chasis to ground to a 4 guage and took out the old one.

Then I ran a 0 guage cable from the first battery directly to the second battery and grounded it to the body....

EDIT:

Ok I left the car running, the idle is still normal but the voltage has now dropped to 7.64!
When i rev the car up a little the lights remain dim... From what I gather this sounds like the alternator isn't sending power to anything at all....
anyone else?

atobe · 12-11-2006, 09:28 PM

looks like it's not hooked up to the alerternator somewhere..... with the car on you should be getting at least 14v.... even with the car off you should still be having 12.6v

Curry · 12-11-2006, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atobe

looks like it's not hooked up to the alerternator somewhere..... with the car on you should be getting at least 14v.... even with the car off you should still be having 12.6v

I added another line from the alternator to the battery and fused it with a 200 amp fuse. Im getting voltage thru the fuse and from the alt but again they all read 12.

No idea...

Corollacrazy42 · 12-11-2006, 10:29 PM

If both batteries are hooked up that will put alot of drain on that alternator, even with it being 180amps.

I heard somewhere that you have to do a trickle charge setup, not run both batteries off the alt. That alt, I dont think, can maintain a constant charge for both of the batteries...

You could try disconnecting the second battery, then starting the car, then removing the terminals from the main battery, to see if the alternator keeps the engine at idle. That way you know for sure if you alt is putting any power out.

^^ I do believe that is the way you check the alts power output. Or I think you can use one of the multimeters and stick it to the positive and ground the other wire and see what voltage its running...

Anyways, obviously something is not right because with the car running it should be at around 14V.

Time for troubleshooting

Curry · 12-11-2006, 10:38 PM

Well here's whats happening and I think I found the problem.

First that yellow under the hood was losing charge and would NOT take charge at all even while the car was running so I hooked it up to my charger pack and STILL didnt take the charge so i switched the battiers and sure enough i got a steady 12 volts with the car on and it wasnt losing charge.

So first off one of the optimas is bad.

Now we have one battery in the equation. Im still getting 12 volts steady no power loss no dimming.

What happens is if i rev the engine the voltage stays the same. I measured output from the alternator and its 12 volts.

One thing to note is that the alternator has a smaller pulley than the stock one... so im guessing this may be the cause of it....

Again im getting 12 volts by only using ONE battery.

Corollacrazy42 · 12-11-2006, 11:09 PM

Hmm... hell it maybe be both the damn batteries by the sounds of it.. lol

But seriously, I heard that those Iraggi's only generate power at higher rev's which doesnt really explain why it doesnt really increase during higher rev's.

12V is still not where you want it to be. You could just go get both batteries tested first just to be safe then go from there.

With the alternator... maybe try putting the stock pully on the new alt? Is that possible? That maybe help solve the revolution problem you may be experiencing.

Next of all you could try getting the alt tested by a car shop to see if its functioning correctly. I got mine checked for free in and outside my car. Checked out but, was worth it to eliminate the problem.

O btw did you test the batteries on their own without being attached to anything at all.

Could also be a voltage regulartor gone wrong. Not really to techful with them but I dont see why it wouldnt be working now if it was before.

I think a normal car battery is at around 14 volts all on its own, if I remember correctly.

Idk thats all I can think of right now as a troubleshoot.

Curry · 12-11-2006, 11:19 PM

I just had a talk with someone and they said that since its an iraggi alt it needs a trigger wire spliced in to get the alternator going. Sounds logical to me. Becuase i was getting 12 volts and eventually the first battery drained... so that would have to mean the alt wasnt working... so i guess tomorrow wheni go back out we'll know for sure if it was the trigger wire that needs putting on.

Corollacrazy42 · 12-12-2006, 11:32 AM

Haha, I bet that is what it is too. Just something I'm not really aware of I suppose.

Hope that solves the problem.

HL2k · 12-12-2006, 02:58 PM

thats an interesting battery voltage sensor
whats the make of it so I can go hunt for one ?

Corollacrazy42 · 12-12-2006, 04:31 PM

Its a stinger

Kinda expensive from what I have heard though.

Curry · 12-12-2006, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corollacrazy42

Its a stinger

Kinda expensive from what I have heard though.

Indeed they are sir. Got them off ebay.

WhiteRabbit · 12-12-2006, 10:13 PM

have you tested the alternator to see how many amps it puts out on idle?

Curry · 12-12-2006, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

have you tested the alternator to see how many amps it puts out on idle?

Well I didn't get a chance to hook in the trigger cable yet (which i need to do to get the alternator working). I'll be doing that tomorrow morning. So once I finish that, and it works I'll be able to test all my numbers and give you guys the results. I believe he told me that @ idle it puts out 80 amps.

This should give me brighter lights (not that it matters because im doing HID/projector retrofits anyway) and all that other jazz that comes with lots of juice.

EDIT:

I just realized seeing as I had this problem with the alternator not worknig I was able to test the capacity of both batteries hooked up without them being charged and the car was running for about 2 hours with everything on (Fogs, Computer with movie playing + stereo, headlights) which is pretty good!

dna59 · 12-13-2006, 05:22 AM

Damn nice setup you got there. I like how you did the rewire using bigger wires and those battery terminals are sick.