how to and why to ground your alternator

please like this video :)

received a email from mike singer about grounding my alternator so thought i would share it with you.

[devisissy]

This video is old school. The information is spot on. However the way the battery is connected in this video is shifty. Always good to invest in a 4 in one or 6 in one terminal clamp that allows for each ground and power wire to have its own spot. Helps with easy removal and is over all a cleaner look. Also, its unneeded to connect all amps to the battery in this fashion. Better would be to use a distribution block, with the grounds and power line in the cars battery sized appropriately. For example two amps at 4 gauge, use 0 gauge at battery. At this point you would upgrade the grounds of the battery to the amp, chasse, and motor to 0 gauge as well. The fuse at the car's battery would be sized according to total RMS wattage of all the amps. Then at the distribution block each amp would have the manufacturer's suggested fuse size. Clean and professional.

[MrAcc]

I know this is an old vide, but thought I would share my experience.
Initially I had a 2 gauge frm the the alternator body/case to battery (-) but still had issues with my digital temperature meter..It would go bonkers esp when I turned on the headlights and a/c.
But when I rerouted the same wire from alternator body/case to chassis nearest to battery, it seemed to have solved the issue...seems the alternator was struggling to send current to the otherside, maybe due to various dust, oil, greases around the block, engine, chasis...this worked best for me...

[TheKenzaya]

Perfect....just installed my CES alternator few days ago and was curious about alt ground update. Nailed it. Thanx

[Littles]

When you unbolted the mounting bolt for the alternator did it move around at all or it stayed in place?

[Boviathan]

My neighbor left the positive battery cable on top of her engine and it burned through and touched ground. We figured out it killed the battery and I believe it killed the alternator as well but wouldn't the alternator whether it was bad or not still let the engine start? If a diode goes bad in there is AC in the DC voltage it will still run?

[joshprice]

I have a singer 275 amp alternator pushing a sundown saz 3500, my bass is a lot deeper after doing the big 3 and voltage never drops below 14

[malloryrobinson]

I'm having same trouble with my Chevy uplander I purchased a new alternator and battery my battery light is still on and I'm also getting a error message saying Charging System Failure any recommendations?

[brycebrown]

So I'm confused now, do I ground my alternater to the body, negative battery, or positive battery, seen all three???

[samj]

Good tip thank you..Did you consider shorter route like, from Alternator body to nearest chasis point..something like 14 inch long thick wire may work.

[JanoyCresva]

So i have a bad engine ground was getting readings of -.10 on both the alternator case and the engine block. Car has been wanting to stall with the lights on and defrost on while in park. So is it possible to just add a secondary ground to the alternator and just not mess with the firewall ground? Or should i just replace the engine block to firewall ground? Thing is the engine block ground is in a total blind spot and my alternator is right up top in the front. It would be much easier i think to just get an earth strap or 0 gauge wire from alternator to the frame.

[jerrycrosier]

Was this a 97 Honda CRV I’m trying to get my new alternator to work I’ve tried running from my power to the positive side of battery checked fuses and replaced battery terminals themselves, I’m going to try this, hoping that solves my problem, if not is there a way to rig up the if wire to the alternator?

[SG-Cichlids]

You're right adding a ground for the alternator to the battery is good. The only thing I'd add is. You don't have to ground directly to the alternator. The engine and alternator are metal bolted together. You just need to go from negative on the battery to the first convenient spot on the engine.

[Thebankfisher]

I messed around trying different grounding locations on my car. .. it has a very small 10-12ga wire from the passenger side motor mount to the chassis near the strut tower that's on the alt side my battery is on the opposite side I did the big three and jumped the wire from the chassis to the alt case then back to the battery and that was the best ground for me it made a noticeable difference in voltage as well as holding the power longer with just a single battery and 150a alt up front charging went from 13.8-14.0 to 14.3-14.5

[KevinPerez-fdxq]

I see that you don’t have battery post on the battery but just straight ring terminals. Is that efficient?

[anthonymerc]

Hello there is it ok to put the ground on to the alternator mount bolt?

[journalsofajackass]

3 questions. 
What size fuse did you run of the zero gauge wire from the alt to the battery? 
What size alternator are you running? And what is safe for the Mazda 3's
Is there a way to replace the fusible link on the stock power wire (brown one by the battery post with a breaker instead?

[Burgerdog]

Can you run the ground from the alternator to the chassis instead of back to the battery?

[joelongstaff]

I know this is an older video but I need help. I dragged an old wood framed car out of the bush. It's got an oak frame in it. It has a delco alternator with a direct wire from the ground to the negative battery post with some kind of diode link on the post. Would you know what it might be?

[daddyrooster]

What about the shorter stock ground should you remove it? Is it too small gauge wire?

[edp]

I already have the big 3 done, does adding that alt ground help a lot?