Re: Alfa (Spider) main battery wire size

["Anne O" <marinefuel@domain.elided>]

Biba,
 For the cars with the battery in the trunk,I used #0,wanting to 
minimize voltage drop.But also because I had a spool of it on
hand.It is difficult to get terminals for in automotive sizes.

A #2 wire would be fine for a battery under hood installation
and very good (about a 4% voltage drop) for a battery in trunk
application.Terminals are readily available.

The #1 wire would offer less resistance,but for the small
improvement it's not worth the price,almost double the cost from
West Marine.

Wire of this quality is available elsewhere,but the minimum
purchase length is usually much more.

The West Marine wire is superb quality,the strands are silver
tinned,the jacket grease and water proof.
 Welding wire is composed of many hair fine strands of untinned
copper which are prone to corrode.Amazing,considering how they
are used,the jacket is not waterproof,just water resistant.
Its use as wiring is forbidden in yacht construction. Do an
autopsy on a welding cable that has been in a marine
enviorment-verdigris wire.

Do remember to use the heat shrink at the terminals when making
up the wires and replace the starter ground wire with one of the
same wire size as the battery cables.

I have used their battery boxes in many applications,they work
well, but not in the Spider,it would interfere with the
disconnect switch I installed.

Anne O


----------
>From: alfacybersite <acs@domain.elided>


> Anne O went into a great deal of detail some time ago regarding what
> main battery wire to use (and not use) on one's Alfa.
>
> She said, "Don't use welding wire, do use marine type wire."

> Biba
> (Yo hoo hoo and a bottle of rum in) Irwindale, CA USA
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided