General Wiring Questions

[djXternal 10+ year member]

Ok guys well I'm finally getting my carpc and new sound equipment installed and I'm going to need to run some good wiring...

I have three things that rquire +12v in the trunk so I was going to run 1/0awg from the battery to a distro block and break off three 6awg sources from the distro block, I am not running very strong amp for this setup and I have been using 8awg for the amps right now...

First question: To fuse the positive wire, is it necessary for the fuse to be close to the battery in the engine bay, or is it ok as long as there is one along the line somewhere like the Stinger fused distro block?

Now all three of those are also going to need good grounds...

Second Question: I read somewhere that the ground wire should not be longer than 2 feet. Is this true? And if not would it be ok to do nearly the same setup as my +12v with my gounding?

And a small additional question... Does anyone have a 2g (95-99) mitsu eclipse that has done the big 3 upgrade? I wanted to know the best way to get to the alternator

Thanks in advance for the help

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[dkguitarist 5,000+ posts]

yes you definately want a fuse within 12 inches of the battery. fuse it with a fuse big enough for the TOTAL current you're going to be drawing. also, you fuse it before you're equipment. the first fuse is to protect the long wire from batt to amp as to prevent your car from burning to the ground. the 2nd fuse is to protect your equipment from being fried by a current draw. anytime you reduce wire size you need to fuse as well. hope this helps.

2nd, you're ground should be as short as possible. less resistance and it helps to get the power back through the circuit: alt-batt-amp-ground and it keeps looping. if you have multiple grounds, find a common ground as to not have a ground loop. carpc's can gain a lot of noise interference esp with ground loops, as i read over on mp3car.com. hope this helps.

 

[djXternal 10+ year member]

alright thanks for the help... and yes ground noise is a big issue on the pc which Is why I want to do the big 3 upgrade and will be grounding all these electronics to the same place