electrical system upgrade

Ok fella's, had my charging system hecked last night and so me alternator is on its way out. So over the next few weeks i want to start upgrading my electrical system as ill be doing sound system and dual air compressors. First question, will the gm 1 wire swap work on the 2.6 fi engine. and second question is in your opinions out of the batteries out there (like optima, kinetik, etc) which is better and would prefer to use.

im not sure on the 1 wire alt. but im sure you can make it fit

as far as how to upgrade you electrical, i would do whats called "the big 3"
its upgrading your power and ground wires. you upgrade the wire from the alternator to the battery. also upgrade the main ground from the frame to the negative on the battery. and then ground the chassis to the battery. its overkill but i recommend 1/0 just incase you want to run a system down the road.

as far as batteries, there is a ton of companies out there. it depends o your budget....ill put them in 3 catagories. from best to ok..

best....
xs power d3100
northstar g3100 or nsb90
odyessy 2150

good.....
kinetik 2400
shuriken bt120
die hard platinum

great budget batteries...

c&d technologies
deka intemidator
exide agm roadforce
stinger sp70

I prefer the Kinetik batt they also weigh a ton good thing the batts on the passenger side. You should also upgrade the wiring too. On my truck with the stock alt I was getting 13.5 volts to my battery the factory ground wire was shot too. I put on new terminals at the batt ran a 4awg ground to the factory one on the frame and also used another 4awg wire to go from the batt to the back of the alt. Now at idle I am at 14.25 volts, I still plan on replacing the alt with either a 626 alt or something else later on. The factory uses an 8awg wire to go to the batt from the alt I think. This was just a temp fix because I did not want to dismantle a whole bunch of stuff and rewire the whole electrical system not yet. Also 20 plus year old wires can have high resistance too, poor connections, previous owners, you get the idea.

well you can always get an alt like mine



well this is my old one...250 amps. my new one is 280 amps

yeah i plan on doing the wire upgrade. reason i asked about the gm 1 wire is i seen topics of people flipping em upside down and they bolt right up but didnt know if they worked on the braketry of the 2.6 fi motor. hunter where did you get ur alt. and about how much and is it direct bolt on. as far as budget, i dont mind spending the extra on getting the better product that i will get the best performance and longevity out of down the road

*also plan on adding another battery when i get my air compressors, dont know if that would throw anything in the mix

I got that alt from mechman alternators...it cost me about 450 its def not cheap.and it took me a little shaving down on the bracket some but it wasn't bad. And if you call them they can make one for the 2600. I think the gm 1 wire might be a great budget alty that will do great.

I have a quick question about the wiring on a stock Mazda alternator. I bought a hack job 93 Mazda with a 2.2 to rebuild and sell and the alternator is not putting out. The small plug that has two wires coming out of it has been cut. Also it only has small wire that goes to the battery. Is there supposed to be a ground too from the alt to the frame? Sorry I'm used to 96-99 Chevy Fullsizes when doing the big 3.

the 2 wire plug is the reason she isnt working. i THINK the black wire with the yellow stripe is you turn on. so if you can hook that up to a remote wire it should turn on. im no sure what the other wire is for lol. and you should have AT least 8ga going from the stud off the alty to the bat

Thanks, picking up some 4awg tomorrow to replace all the battery leads anyways. I have no ideal why anybody would of cut that plug but who knows with this truck. That is why it's Project Un Hack Job.

lol