12V Cable from Alternator to Starter

[Alan_C]

My Coyote is going into a Mustang, not an FFR. I was looking at the American Autowire harness instructions I have. I am using the AAW harness for most everything not hooked up the the controls pack harness. In the AAW instructions, they supply a cable for the 69/70 Mustang application between the starter and alternator that includes a fusible link. I will have the 250A mega-fuse installed at the battery, but did not think a fusible link was needed between the alternator and starter. Looking for feedback on what people have done here. Also would like to know what gauge cable was used?

Thanks

[progmgr1]

I recommend that you study edwardb's build threads for the best way to integrate the Coyote and a Ron Francis / American Autowire harness. Look at the 20th Anniversary Roadster thread for a Gen 2 Coyote or his Type 65 Coupe build for a Gen 3 engine / control pack. Paul goes into extensive detail, including things like wire size, fittings and accessories.

Keith HR #894

[elismithc]

in the RF harness, it is just a wire direct from the starter to the alternator, no fuse. Found this out when pulling apart the harness wrap and trying to rearrange some of the RF harness to fit better. As far as wire gauge, I'd guess 4awg since thats what my battery cable that was supplied by FFR was, and if I recall, is about the same size as the cable between the alternator and starter.

[Alan_C]

Keith: Your suggestion to look at edwardb (Paul's) 20th Anniversary thread helped some. It is interesting that Paul bought his 2nd Gen Coyote Controls Pack early in the production run and they supplied battery power cable with the kit. I bought my Controls Pack in 2018 and FP eliminated the battery cable, leaving me with nothing to look at. Once I read Paul's thread regarding wiring, it gave me some things to look for. My 2nd Gen Coyote came from a 2017 GT donor and I did remove the battery cabling with the engine. After stripping back all the harness wrap and extra wiring, I could see that there were two 12V cables, one from the battery directly to the starter and a secondary cable to the alternator. I checked the cable connecting to the alternator with a #6 ring terminal and it is 6 AWG and not fused internally. The cable from the battery to the starter is slightly larger than the 4 AWG I had left over from my MK4 build, so I am thinking it is 2 AWG.

I will repurpose the alternator cable taken from my donor as it is just a bit longer than needed and has the proper 5/16" terminal and cap. I plan to buy 2 AWG cable to run from the trunk mount battery to be connected to the starter. I also plan to run a parallel 4 AWG run from the battery, 250A fuse really, to the power distribution box (PDB) which will be mounted in the interior of my build. I will note that Ford essentially did the same thing, the battery cable has one #2 and one #6 cable crimped together at the battery terminal connector. So Ford ran parallel POS 12V runs in the OEM Mustang wiring as well.

I thank those that responded, I have a plan now for my POS cable wiring.