Need a little help with wiring upgrades

[ray230]

I do not post much, but I regularly am on this site for information and have found it very helpful. Since I do not post often, I'll give a little background on me and my Charger. My 68 was my first car. I bought it in 1977 for $300. My father and I replace a bad 383 with a salvage 400 and I drove it all through highschool. Then somehow managed to keep it through marrige and raising children. 2 years ago I expirienced the Mopar smoking dash and ammeter issue. I am terrible at wiring so I had a Mopar guy and body shop replace the dash and engine harness with a new one. The car has a '73 400 in it with electronic ignition. In the dash rewire we did replace the ammeter gauge with a voltmeter and joined the 2 ammeter leads. Everything else went back stock.

That brings me to today. This year I decided to make the Charger run as good as she looked. The project has snowballed as they normally do. All of the big items are finished and ready to go back together. The 400 is now a 500 stroker making 583hp and 635tq, trans is rebuilt with a tight 2800-3000 stall, AFCO radiator and electric fans.

Now to my questions. I have a new 100 amp single wire alternator. My plan was to run a 4 ga. wire from it to the battery. All late model cars and trucks are wired this way with no fuse, etc. I read several posts about putting a maxi fuse in between. Is this needed and why? (remember I am not good with electrical issues so be kind) The fusable link from the starter to the starter relay post then through the bulkhead is where the dash gets its power, right? Wouldn't that protect it?

My second  question is in regard to the distributor. I will be running an MSD Ready to Run, so I will be removing the ignition box and ballast. The instructions just list a hot  12v ignition wire. The new/old electronic harness had a 4 post ballast. The blue/brown wired post is hot on start, and the blue/black stripe post is hot run. Do I need to splice them together for connection to the hot lead from the distributor?

Thanks much.

[Pete in NH]

Hi,

While later models may not fuse the alternator wire to the battery, which if they do, is not  a good idea, would you want to risk your 68 to a wiring fire?

While the chance may be small, if something in the alternator short circuits to ground you risk dumping all the battery energy through the wire conning them and melting insulation and surrounding wiring. There would be a lot of energy expended and things would get very hot. A fuse or fusible link would be protection against something catastrophic happening. I would prefer an actual fuse to a fusible link as fuses are more easily replaced and more predictable in their action.

A #4 wire is a bit heavy for 100 amps, a #6 would do. A #4 won't hurt though.

[ray230]

Thank you for replying Pete. I understand the extra safety. Owning the car as long as I have it is part of the family. An 80 amp maxi should fit the bill then correct? Oreilly's has a 100 amp breaker. Thoughts?

Besides connecting to the battery withthe fuse in line, is there anything else that I would need to do?

Any advice on the distributor power source?

Thanks again for your help.

[Pete in NH]

I think 80 amps is as high as Maxi-Fuses go and an 80 amp would be fine. The circuit breaker would work as well. My personal preference is to go with fuses over circuit breakers as circuit breakers are mechanical and there is always the chance they will not work correctly when needed. That's just my own preference though. Which ever you use place it as close to the battery as possible.

On the ignition system, I don't really know anything about MSD systems and will have to leave that to someone who knows about them.

[ray230]

Thanks Pete.

Anyone else using an MSD ready to run?

[lukedukem]

Thanks Pete.

Anyone else using an MSD ready to run?

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,112133.0.html
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,102162.0.html

I would see what others say too, but firecore sounds like the way to go.

luke

[ray230]

Thanks for the links.
I wasn't aware of the Firecore, it would have been an option for sure.
But I already have the MSD and the engine is done. There was a little clearancing on the head and the valve cover, but not to bad.