I have been having problems with my car for a couple months now. When I would sit at a stoplight idling, I could hear a relay under the dash clicking erraticly. Also, the choke light would flicker every now and then. These are both signs that the alternator is not charging the battery very well. Well, today I started my car, and noticed that the voltage was sitting at 12, not chanrging. After some troubleshooting, I found that the problem was the wire which goes from the alternator to the battery. When I changed my car over to serpentine, I had to extend the wire to the alternator, since it moved to the other side of the engine. I simply added a section of wire to the original one. When you simply twist 2 wires together, its like putting a resistor inbetween them, the connection adds resistance. Well, I took the old wire off, and made one long wire that goes straight from the alternator to the battery terminal. I used 8 gauge amp power wire, and gold plated wire connectors. Now its charging great, and the clicking at idle is gone.

The reason I am posting this, is because back when I first had the problem with the relay clicking, I posted a question on here, and I remember a couple people replying and saying that their car did the same thing. Hope this helps.

 

Ward,

As with anything electrical, simply twisting the wires together doesn't make a good connections (well, except for high voltage or RF). It might be O.K. for testing, but needs to be made more permanent. The only reliable way is with a compression terminal with antioxidant compound, solder, or weld (yes, WELD) the copper together. Since most of us don't have CADwelding kits for small connections, soldering is a must. And for anything exposed to the elements (as in or around a vehicle) sealing the connections against moisture and corrosion is critical, since the solder will eventually fail is exposed.

Your case is a good argument for taking the time to do it right. Your solution is probably even better than a soldered splice.