i was trying to figure out my starter problem today, and i came across another thing that looked pretty afro engineered. theres a wire that runs off the hot terminal on the back of the altenator, runs to this mini canister, looks like a household battery, it appears to be a capacitor because it says 35v on the side, and 6800uf (micro farads), and capacitors are rated in farads...there is 2 terminals on the top, the hot wire from the altenator runs in, then the output wire was broken off, but it just runs to a ground on the fender by the battery...

this makes no sense why they would have this, and what would it be used for? the wiring is like 12 gauge speaker wire, so its definately not stock...what do you think it would be used for, and what should I do with it??

 

May have been put in for stereo suppression? But definitely should not be needed.

 

Capacitors also act to "smooth" off an electric current.

They may have put it there to keep alternator whine out of the stereo system.

 

okay, so its not needed then right...just yank it out

 

Quite possibly used to reduce noise to the stereo, but the values are *all* wrong. For suppression you want something like 0.1 uf, and not at the starter, but more like directly at the input to the amp or the stereo. I could also see someone *trying* to use that to give the starter a tiny bit of extra "oomph", as if the starter was bogging down (from heat soak, or maybe it was really really old and almost bad), and pulling excessive current.

6800 uf (microfarads) is a TINY amount of capacitance for something as current heavy as a starter. The minimum I'd use in case I felt the need to capacitively start my starter motor (totally unnecessary), would be like a quarter farad (250,000 microfarads). The RC time constant of that thing at the 50-75 amps or so the starter pulls is like a few microseconds. Its like helping your bathtub fill faster by pouring a dixie cup of water in right when you turn on the tap.

A spit in the wind in other words, completely useless - yank that thing outta there just to make sure it isn't leaking and draining your battery! Chances are that the EMF kickback from the starter has probably destroyed it anyways (if its electrolytic, which it most definitely is.)

A 6800 uf is more typically found in a nice electric razor wall cube power supply, or even a computer power supply, or your cordless drills battery charger.