A Suburban A Warhorse and a pair of Double Dees

[RickyFriery97]

Damn good idea on the grounds! Whole install is EXTREMLY clean!

[onebadmonte]

Damn good idea on the grounds! Whole install is EXTREMLY clean!

Thanks. Now that I'm nearing the end I'm being real careful not to fhawk things up.

[onebadmonte]

Just an inch of progress today guys and gals. I started working on making the ground cables. First things first, I made a mock up cable about 24" long with a single ring terminal. I compressed the cable end of the terminal just tight enough to hold but still removable. I lucked out that my cable has a teflon type sheathing over the actual wire, making it easy to install and remove the ring terminal as necessary. A single winding of electrical tape would suffice if the cable didn't have the sheathing.

I started looking around for a good area to make my frame to block ground. I decided on the point where the rear power steering bracket mounts onto the block.

This is how I'll be orienting the ring terminal at the block.

It's a bit of a trick getting to this location since it's at the bottom of the engine block. I've taken out the inner fender well to get into this area. If you're willing to take the extra effort of removing the inner fender and the front wheel of the car you'll be rewarded with better access and less frustrations through out the project. Now the only limitation is having tools to be able to reach. This is what I used to be able to sand down the block for my ground point.

The extension is actually for screw driver bits. Roaming the aisles of a family owned hardware store I came across this wire brush cup with a hex just like a screw driver bit. Problem solved. I followed up the sanding of the block by sanding both the front and backside of the power steering bracket.

Here is a shot of everything back in place with the modified ring terminal.

Here is the mock up cable in place to give you an idea of how the cable will be routed to the ground on the frame.

With the cable in place I am able to mark off the length required to make the cable.

I did this for all my ground cables. To make things go a bit faster I'm one to take notes. The ol' memory bank isn't what it used to be. Here is my notes sheet.

To keep the cables in order I'll be making some small brackets. Here is a little preview of that.

[onebadmonte]

Today is the day I start crimping the ring terminals on to the cables. Before I do, I need the right tool for the job. I picked up one of those hydraulic crimpers from Harbor Freight, the one with the undersized die set. I decided to modify on of the die sets for a better crimp. I stated off by putting some tape on the die set so I can draw my crimp design on it. Here is what I got.

The white area is what will be removed. I'll cut out an "M" shape on the plunging die, and a saddle on the fixed die. I'll be using my trusty jig saw to cut the "M" shape on the plunging die.

After a bit if filing this is what I ended up with.

Now on to the fixed die. I'll be working that one with a Dremel and small sanding drum. Here is an action shot for all my cavemen homies.

Here's a shot of the final die set.

Before we get to how the die set worked here is a little trick I came across to get all the wires into the ring terminal to avoid this from happening.

We start off with a piece of paper about 3/8" longer than the barrel of the ring terminal, about 2" long.

Roll it up nice and tight.

Then wrap it around the exposed wire of the cable.

Now the ring terminal slips over the wires without any fraying.

Now just pull out the paper with some needle nose plies. Look ma' no fraying.

Back to the crimping. I set up the hydraulic crimper in a vise to make is easier to hold the cable in place and I worked the crimper. This is how the crimp is looking so far.

With the cable out of the crimper, this is what the back side of the crimp looked like.

Here is a shot of the front side.

It came out looking good. I tried to pull the ring terminal off using a long bolt through the ring terminal and holding the cable with the other hand. It stayed together. Sorry, I don't have a pull scale to say how much force it will take before it comes a part. :|

With everything looking good so far I followed up by adding some shrink wrap over the crimp.

Lastly, the colored cable end the ring terminal came with to designate polarity.

Not to worry, I've got red ones too. One down many more to go. o_o

[onebadmonte]

Now for the final step in my front grounds. I got all the cable crimped and ready for installation. I last left off with some grommets in triangle configuration. This is what I came up with.

Here is the bracket formed and the grommets installed.

Here I've got the bracket and alternator assembly on the workbench. I've installed and oriented the ground cables allowing me to place my hold-down.

I've got the mounting points drilled and tapped for the hold-downs. I have also spot faced both sides of the rear bracket where the alternators mount for my grounds.

Here is a close up of the triangle hold-down bracket installed in the rear alternator bracket.

Here is the final assembly ready for installation.

With the bracket and alternators installed I can start attaching the ground cables to the frame ground locations. Here is a shot looking up at the installed grounds. I used some steel spacers to stack the ring terminals without having to go around the bolt in a flower pedal pattern.

Here is a straight shot as the grounds.

Now time for some power cables. Better get back to work.

[rubbernutz1]

wow hes not fuckin around on this install

[uhoh_45]

everythings looking like over kill (in a good way)

love how clean this install is :drink40:

and just a suggestion but if you have any other crimp dies that you wont be using turn it into a hex style crimp to squish the whole wire making it one solid connection

but then i guess you would need new terminals haha

heres photo of what im trying to say

(thanks charger for photo)

[brads0069]

WOW, very impressed! Lots of great ideas here. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

[onebadmonte]

wow hes not fuckin around on this install

Thanks.

everythings looking like over kill (in a good way)

love how clean this install is :drink40:

and just a suggestion but if you have any other crimp dies that you wont be using turn it into a hex style crimp to squish the whole wire making it one solid connection

but then i guess you would need new terminals haha

heres photo of what im trying to say

(thanks charger for photo)

Dang, that looks effing solid. I'm gonna have to look into that. Thanks for the tip.

WOW, very impressed! Lots of great ideas here. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

Thanks. That's why we're all here for, to share and improve.

[monkeyleg]

Added to bookmarks, looks awesome, cant wait to hear it play. How much power is going to each 7"?