kawitwofiddy

So for starters, I have a 90 s13 hatch was also originally auto... (2 big reasons for doing what I did)

Heres some back ground info... scroll down to skip to problem.


Some 7 months ago, I was driving home from work, and my car dies. After having my buddy jump start me, my car continues to die every mile or so for the remaining 10ish miles home. Luckily I set out to rebuild my motor that weekend, and could evaluate the problem... After troubles for the next 5 or 6 months, including trying to slap a turbo on with a budget, and my car sitting and me having to pay bills to survive, and not having money to invest in my car, I take the turbo off to test my motor and make sure it ran N/A the way it did before all this jazz when on. Go back to N/A and she runs nice and strong, just rich. but that's ok for now.

After a couple weeks, the alternator problem re-arises... (NOTE: this is not my current problem.) After fucking with the clip that goes into the alternator, nothing worked.(actually is the problem)

At this point:
-alternator wirings fucked up
-I let my electrically inclined buddy attempt to fix my cluster with the aide of my fsm (fsm's are gangster), but he ended up just messing shit up (no brake lights, broke my blinker assy, no wiper function
-originally auto, and had too many deleted functions.
- some dumbass who owned the car before me "tucked" the engine bay harness by putting the relay boxes on the bottom side of the battery location/whatever you wanna call the other side.

so I decided, fuck it, lets learn the wiring in this car IN and OUT
I decided to jump into something I was clueless about, barely understood how relays worked lol. I decided to make a custom chassis harness and engine bay harness. After a several weeks of going fully nocturnal to avoid the AZ heat, and spending every spare dollar I had, I turned over the key to hear my baby start right up.

ALMOST TO THE PROBLEM.....(i'd start reading here if you skipped ^^)

So my new harness' would basically serve three purposes - engine, audio(im just a dumb 19 yo kid addicted to the bass + I intend to drive around town in it again one day), and the third purpose is lights, wipers blinkers hazards, all the outer components virtually.

I made a relay/fuse panel, and a switch panel for the junction between all these wires. The fuse panel was made from Plexiglas and switch panel was just sheet metal. after being super picky about every wire being perfect, I get Inpatient and slap the rest together and go for a drive and drove for a good 30 minutes, smashing on the throttle drifting a little and it ran solid, just rich. The first problem I encounter came when I was driving it home a coule nights later, solved tonight by RESEARCHING (I may be young n dumb but I listen to all you 'search first' fellas haha) was my car spuddering like no other under heavy acceleration, and eventually I couldn't touch the gas at all or itd choke out. One thing I thought I was able to bypass while rewiring was that stupid little clip that goes into my alternator. After reading I learned how important that clip was. My next task was to figure out how to make a dummy light since my clusters been removed, and I knew that wire had to see load or some shit like that. I got all that situated try and go to start it and see if that fixed my problem.

HERE IS MY CURRENT PROBLEM

Got my car started, charge light did exactly what it was suppose to. On when key turned to on position, off when car starts. Take it around the block, no hesitation. Nothing but sex. Popped my cherry all over again. Then I got that feared " What the fuck do I smell burning" feeling. I looked over to my Plexiglas relay panel and see a bright orange/yellow light on the alternator side of the 80amp fusible link. you really need a picture to understand how the fusible link is set up, and I will try to find a way for you guys to view them after I post this. but some how the alternator wire coming from the 12v post got REALLY hot and melted the shit out of the Plexiglas, and the side of the fusible link. its a fusible link from auto zone looks like [0][80][0] (the outer zeroes are the lead posts. I drilled holes into the Plexiglas and put bolts through the link, then through the plexiglass and had the wire lead on the back side of the board im sure my problem lies in my set up, I just want to figure it out, I may have screwed up by running the alt power wire to the back side of the board(like explained a few lines up) and the constant power in the alt clip to the front side of that same side on the link. Could the power concentrate too intensely? if there was no plexiglass between them would the problem still persist? I don't even know how to approach this problem. Thicker gauge wire? its already 10 or 8 gauge. Any input is greatly appreciated!!!

Hoffman5982

Yeah run some thicker wire. 4awg or bigger. 10 is way too small for that kind of power. It can only handle 30 amps max. I believe the stock alternator puts out ~80 amps.

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kawitwofiddy

whys the stock wire so thin though???

4awg wire for just the constant 12v to alt post wire, or the constant running into the clip as well??

kawitwofiddy

Also, would anybody say that using Plexiglas as a relay board isa bad idea, because of what happened? I definitely feel using sheet metals not a good idea at all, because its mounted to the chassis, and has 12v power running all over it.... the Plexiglas panel kinda cool, and I think it should be fine, just need to revise how I run a few things.

Would running the 12v from the post, and 12v in the clip on the same side of the fusible link cause any problems??

RedtopTech

Disconnect the positive cable from the battery, starter, alternator and fuse box. See if you have continuity to ground. Since you were able to drive it around for a while before the fused popped, It sounds likely that your starter wire may have melted on the exhaust or may be shorting on the starter near the B+ post. Also, Plexiglass makes for a great insulater.

kawitwofiddy

I believe the problem is fixed. Put a solid 100+ miles on her so far and haveny had any issues besides the small bugs in my engine performance. She fires right up every time after throwing 4 gauge wire in. Read about ampacity ratings of each gauge wire, etc. Thanks hoffman!