Bigger battery cables??

I was driving my jeep last night and stopped at a red light. I noticed that my voltmeter was reading almost as low as 9-10 volts!! My lights were also very dim. I heard a "click" and my voltmeter shot up to 13-14 volts. That "click" was my rear defroster shutting off. Would bigger battery cables help in this situation or is there something else that I could do to prevent this? I'm planning on installing bigger cables in the spring and probably a bigger alternator from a zj V8. Thanks for the help!!!

sounds like there is a short in the wiring for your rear defroster, you might want to cheack that before you go replaceing battery cabels or an alternator. but if you are bent on upgrading you cables you have two options.

1) a premade harness like www.jeeperscreepers.com sells

2) you can make your own out of heavy gauge welding cable

I'm planning on going with the welding cables. Im using some hella 550's right now but more lights and a winch will be coming shortly. I'll check for the short like you said. My jeep is full of shorts I fixed in the past. I'm ready to just rewire everything!!

I ran into some starting problems with mine and it turned out that my power leads were shot. Their was a post on here about a week ago that I used for info. I went to a welding supply store and for $19 I got 1 guage cable for the positive lead to the starter and the negative lead to the engine, and 4 guage for the battery to body ground and the positive to the fuse box. I used solid copper ends on all the wires. I already had marine grade quick disconnects on the battery terminals, so it was a very fast and easy upgrade. It took less than half an hour for the actual install and I was taking my time. I'm running the Hella 550's as well as a good sized stereo and amp setup off of the stock alternator and I haven't had an issue with my lights dimming since I put this wiring in. I'm happy with it.

catyrpelius said:

sounds like there is a short in the wiring for your rear defroster, you might want to cheack that before you go replaceing battery cabels or an alternator. but if you are bent on upgrading you cables you have two options.

1) a premade harness like www.jeeperscreepers.com sells

2) you can make your own out of heavy gauge welding cable

Click to expand...

You sure about that link ??? even with a search all I get is some cultmovie stuff.

I used 2/0 fine gage welding wire. The wire is tuff and very flexable. I mesured the length I needed and had the elec. suppply place cut and crimp the ends on for me.

I also used marine grade battery terminals, though I replaced the wingnuts with nyloks. I think I spent about 50 or 60 bucks on this upgrade. I even have about 6' left over for when I add another battery.

Heavier battery cables do help quite a bit but depending on the year of your XJ you still might see drops with accessories. On mine it's mostly when the defroster,headlamps and wipers are running. I really think it's more of a false reading as I know the main power going to the fusepanel and gauge are pretty inadequate. It will read around 12-13 volts at the gauge and over 14 at the battery.

I've got a whole bunch of 220 volt, 3 phase cable out back would that work or is it WAY overkill?

The 1 guage I used is almost as large as whats in that picture. Since neither of the pieces were more than 3 feet going up to 2/0 wouldn't have done anything other than make it a lot more expensive. I could see using 2/0 if you're going for long distances, but if all your doing is replacing the stock wiring, than 1 guage is more than sufficient. Even the 4 guage I used for the short runs(less than 10 inches) is rated for 600 volts. I'm not sure what the other specs are for like amperage capacity, but I know that they're higher than anything a Cherokee will ever put out. That's how I viewed it when I did mine anyway... The posts that were in here a little while ago really helped when I started doing research on this mod.

For mine I just bought the cable and ends and cut them to length while I was installing them. It allowed me to relocate where some of the wires were routed and get them the perfect length. I followed the guys directions at the welding shop and used a hammer to just flatten the ends on the cables. Some people have said they solder theirs on as well, but the guy told me that if it's crimped on well enough you don't need to bother. They never do when they make cables for welders at the shop.

BTW, anyone know a link for info on the ZJ alternator swap for a 95 XJ?
Thanks!

On my XJ, I used #2 AWG. The 2/0 is a bit of an over kill based on the length of the cable. Very important!! Do not forget the cable between the alternator and the battery/fuse pannel; the one in the engine compartment. The 95 amp alternator in the XJ has a hard time supplying enough power to adequately run all the XJ electronics at the same time. A 130+ AMP alternator with a #2 AWG cable would go a long way to aleviate some of your power problems. Like Lunatic728 did, crimping is the only way to go. I have seen solder melt from many a battery cable causing no ends to problems. While you are at it, redo the grounds as well.
By-the-way, if you have the #2/0 cable, use it. A large cable would not rob you of AMPS but a small one would.

techno1154 said:

Very important!! Do not forget the cable between the alternator and the battery/fuse pannel; the one in the engine compartment. The 95 amp alternator in the XJ has a hard time supplying enough power to adequately run all the XJ electronics at the same time. A 130+ AMP alternator with a #2 AWG cable would go a long way to aleviate some of your power problems.

Click to expand...

A word of caution on replacing the cable from the alternator to the fuse box. The stock cable is a fusible link and is a saftey feature. This cable is designed to burn away in the event of a major short and should not be replaced with a regular cable because it will not offer any protection. Fusible links for the most part are very reliable and we have had many people use a higher output alternator and still use the stock fusible link without any ill effects.

We recommend replacing the fusible link for the following reason;
1. The original one is burnt or damaged.
2. You've installed a higher output alternator.
3. The fusible link is old and dried out.

If this is the case we do offer a circuit breaker kit to replace the fusible link.

James