Best alternator option?

[ArdWrknTrk]

It depends on the mount you have. it seems for our trucks you need the 8 1/4" ear to ear spacing which is the large case. It appears there was a small case 95A 3G that had the 8 1/4" wide ear spacing at one time but you cant find them anymore.

It is believed you can run the narrower ear spacing 3G which is found in both large and small case outputs. The belief is that you might not be able to swing the 3G far enough in to get a stock belt on with the narrower spacing on the ears.

Me personally I am tempted to just get the small case 95A 3G alternator locally and try to make it work with the OE belt. If it appears I can I will update those on here that should be fine with a 95A 3G.

But still, when you run the proper size fuse even for a 95A 3G you still will exceed the grip of a V belt before the fuse blows. Unless you go with a undersized fuse so it will blow before your belt slips.

Painless is a good wiring company, pricy but good.

Another option is American Auto Wire they offer a charge kit that comes with 6ga charge cable and a couple mega fuses.

Rusty, you're confusing "case" with "mounting"

95A is small case. Four holes and 130mm diameter.

130A is large case. TWO holes and 148mm diameter.

The 3.0V-6 had 7l C-C mounts

The 3-8l V-6 had 8.25" C-C mounts.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

Rusty, you're confusing "case" with "mounting"

95A is small case. Four holes and 130mm diameter.

130A is large case. TWO holes and 148mm diameter.

The 3.0V-6 had 7l C-C mounts

The 3-8l V-6 had 8.25" C-C mounts.

I don't know why my previous post is all jammed together with no whitespace.

That is not how I posted, and I even went back to try and fix it.

[Rusty_S85]

Rusty, you're confusing "case" with "mounting"

95A is small case. Four holes and 130mm diameter.

130A is large case. TWO holes and 148mm diameter.

The 3.0V-6 had 7l C-C mounts

The 3-8l V-6 had 8.25" C-C mounts.

I know, but I am not confusing case with mounting though. I have seen some evidence that with the 95A 3G there was a wide ear variant as the 95A was introduced first from what I could find. I could never find the exact date when the 130A 3G came out but Hotrod magazine states 1994 is when the 3G was introduced by ford which makes no sense considering any 1991/1992 non DOHC Ford Taurus has a 3G alternator. Problem is all you find for that early car is a 130A 3G with the wide ear spacing. I dont believe the 91/92 Taurus originally came with a 130A I think they had the smaller 95A variant.

That is what is bothering me greatly is I am seeing some information to state this is true but cant find anything definitive.

Just like with the upgrade sites state you need the 8.25" spacing for any V-belt setup on our trucks. Then it throws in you can use the smaller 7" spacing on our trucks but there may be interference with the air pump. Never saw any clarification of what interference do they mean. I wont be running an air pump, I actually have a spare bracket I chopped the mounts off of that I will be using and I will be putting my original bracket up in the off chance that I catch hell for not having the air pump mounted.

If there would be no problem then I wouldnt be doing the digging I am on the subject matter in my spare time trying to figure out what is going on with this information I am coming across.

Cause honestly I dont see the point in spending extra money for a 130A 3G when I would never be able to use that many amps. I could just simply source the 95A 3G and throw a 100A fuse to blow it before it smokes the belt. That way if I am on the highway turning nearly 3,000 rpm and the alternator decides to go out instead of throwing the belt into my water pump belt/powersteering belt/ac belt I would be able to slow down and get off the road running off the battery.

But then again I keep rolling in my mind about belt wrap. more belt wrap you have more grip you have and our trucks have way more belt wrap that many old vehicles out there do when it comes to the alternator.

Plus this came up again recently for me at work cause we got a old timer I used to work with some 6 years ago is back again helping with the long term projects and hes pushing me on why would I need to upgrade to a 95 or 130 amp alternator if I am just adding fuel injection. In his eyes swapping to a higher output 70A 1G alternator would be well over enough for my truck. Problem for me is I dont know how well that will work at producing power at idle to not result in a slow down of the A/C blower or slight dimming of the headlights at full idle. To me I feel a 3G would be the best thing for me as it will put out way more amps at idle than my 1G but at the same time I havent devised a way to limit belt slip with out causing me more work by swapping all my pulleys over and then figuring out how to do my dealer A/C.

I know I read about there being a extra sheeve crank pully out there to run a second alternator belt but makes me question if my bolt on A/C compressor crank pulley would still line up or not.

[Rusty_S85]

You can get all the parts for $30-35.

Since the Painless is a 'kit' in itself, why pay double?

I have repeatedly posted each and every part as a list (with links) to this forum.

But, as you know, eBay and Amazon listings change like the weather.

And I don't feel like chasing them down this evening.

Have a look.

Note the part numbers and Google them yourself.

As for Taurus VS Mustang applications, IDK.

I bought a 130A LRC alternator from DB recently, and posted a photo of the label on the box.

Gary has the spec chart posted here on the website.

Me? If I KNOW something works, and works well, I go with it for $70 delivered.

lol Yep or you could do like me and go to work in the field and source the stuff at no cost to you. I have like 4 or 5 feet of 6ga charge cable and a mega fuse holder and a 175A mega fuse all for free from a American Auto Wire update kit I installed on a old chevelle malibu at work.

They gave two fuses and two fuse holders wanting me to daisy chain them which made no sense to have a single 175A fuse between alternator and everything then a second 175A fuse after the alternator fuse that then feeds power to the main wiring harness for the car. I am like that means the main harness would never be protected as it would have to try and blow two 175A fuses.

I just hope the 4 or 5 feet of charge cable is enough to reach. I estimated for our trucks its about 4 feet from the alternator to the solenoid.

Thats why I am going with a new alternator cause I basically have gotten everything else I need for free to do this conversion. Even the spare alternator mount cradle I got for free from a 82 F150 I did a coyote swap on at work. Same with the second cold air duct that bolts to the core support that I can chop and flip to make it work on the driverside for a dual cold air intake.

But in reality all you really need is the fuse holder, the fuse, and the charge cable.

[ArdWrknTrk]

lol Yep or you could do like me and go to work in the field and source the stuff at no cost to you. I have like 4 or 5 feet of 6ga charge cable and a mega fuse holder and a 175A mega fuse all for free from a American Auto Wire update kit I installed on a old chevelle malibu at work.

They gave two fuses and two fuse holders wanting me to daisy chain them which made no sense to have a single 175A fuse between alternator and everything then a second 175A fuse after the alternator fuse that then feeds power to the main wiring harness for the car. I am like that means the main harness would never be protected as it would have to try and blow two 175A fuses.

I just hope the 4 or 5 feet of charge cable is enough to reach. I estimated for our trucks its about 4 feet from the alternator to the solenoid.

Thats why I am going with a new alternator cause I basically have gotten everything else I need for free to do this conversion. Even the spare alternator mount cradle I got for free from a 82 F150 I did a coyote swap on at work. Same with the second cold air duct that bolts to the core support that I can chop and flip to make it work on the driverside for a dual cold air intake.

But in reality all you really need is the fuse holder, the fuse, and the charge cable.

30" to the fuseholder, another 10-12" from there to reach the relay or battery.

So, yes! If you are buying by the foot, get four.

'Better to be looking AT it than looking FOR it..

[Rusty_S85]

30" to the fuseholder, another 10-12" from there to reach the relay or battery.

So, yes! If you are buying by the foot, get four.

'Better to be looking AT it than looking FOR it..

Yep, @ 13.8V with a max of 175A with a 2% drop of voltage it shows 6Ga is good for 4ft and 4ga for 6.35ft. If I personally go with the 95A and limit my charge fuse to 100A then 6Ga would be good for up to 7ft.

Thats the thing with this kind of upgrade. with a V belt you will never make enough amperage to actually burn through a 6ga charge wire. Youll smoke the belt before you can generate that kind of amperage. I am so far away on my conversion right now I still have time to flip flop on 95A and 130A 3G variants before making my final decision.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I know, but I am not confusing case with mounting though. I have seen some evidence that with the 95A 3G there was a wide ear variant as the 95A was introduced first from what I could find. I could never find the exact date when the 130A 3G came out but Hotrod magazine states 1994 is when the 3G was introduced by ford which makes no sense considering any 1991/1992 non DOHC Ford Taurus has a 3G alternator. Problem is all you find for that early car is a 130A 3G with the wide ear spacing. I dont believe the 91/92 Taurus originally came with a 130A I think they had the smaller 95A variant.

That is what is bothering me greatly is I am seeing some information to state this is true but cant find anything definitive.

Just like with the upgrade sites state you need the 8.25" spacing for any V-belt setup on our trucks. Then it throws in you can use the smaller 7" spacing on our trucks but there may be interference with the air pump. Never saw any clarification of what interference do they mean. I wont be running an air pump, I actually have a spare bracket I chopped the mounts off of that I will be using and I will be putting my original bracket up in the off chance that I catch hell for not having the air pump mounted.

If there would be no problem then I wouldnt be doing the digging I am on the subject matter in my spare time trying to figure out what is going on with this information I am coming across.

Cause honestly I dont see the point in spending extra money for a 130A 3G when I would never be able to use that many amps. I could just simply source the 95A 3G and throw a 100A fuse to blow it before it smokes the belt. That way if I am on the highway turning nearly 3,000 rpm and the alternator decides to go out instead of throwing the belt into my water pump belt/powersteering belt/ac belt I would be able to slow down and get off the road running off the battery.

But then again I keep rolling in my mind about belt wrap. more belt wrap you have more grip you have and our trucks have way more belt wrap that many old vehicles out there do when it comes to the alternator.

Plus this came up again recently for me at work cause we got a old timer I used to work with some 6 years ago is back again helping with the long term projects and hes pushing me on why would I need to upgrade to a 95 or 130 amp alternator if I am just adding fuel injection. In his eyes swapping to a higher output 70A 1G alternator would be well over enough for my truck. Problem for me is I dont know how well that will work at producing power at idle to not result in a slow down of the A/C blower or slight dimming of the headlights at full idle. To me I feel a 3G would be the best thing for me as it will put out way more amps at idle than my 1G but at the same time I havent devised a way to limit belt slip with out causing me more work by swapping all my pulleys over and then figuring out how to do my dealer A/C.

I know I read about there being a extra sheeve crank pully out there to run a second alternator belt but makes me question if my bolt on A/C compressor crank pulley would still line up or not.

Rusty, you fret too much.

Tell the old man you want power at idle and you want to toss the Damn regulator in the garbage where it belongs.

An alternator will only load as much as it needs.

You could have a 1000A alternator and it would never squeal a belt if the regulator didn't ask for more than 90-100A.

The short ear spacing causes trouble because the big (148mm) case cannot move over enough to tension the belt with the 7" pivot.

I'm tired of rehashing this with you (a dozen times?)

Do it, or don't do it.

I don't care.

I'm using one, and I've installed countless others.

Until you get a grip, and have actual experience with it, I'm done pointing reality at your hypothetical scenarios.

 

[Rusty_S85]

Rusty, you fret too much.

Tell the old man you want power at idle and you want to toss the Damn regulator in the garbage where it belongs.

An alternator will only load as much as it needs.

You could have a 1000A alternator and it would never squeal a belt if the regulator didn't ask for more than 90-100A.

The short ear spacing causes trouble because the big (148mm) case cannot move over enough to tension the belt with the 7" pivot.

I'm tired of rehashing this with you (a dozen times?)

Do it, or don't do it.

I don't care.

I'm using one, and I've installed countless others.

Until you get a grip, and have actual experience with it, I'm done pointing reality at your hypothetical scenarios.

Im just going to go with the 130 cause that was what I feared was it was the case is too close to the mounting bracket and doesnt allow the alternator to pivot over enough to get the belt on.

Plus out of curiosity I did a quick search on alternator belt wrap and all that. From what I am reading it looks like 130A is quite doable with a single V belt with proper belt wrap which ours is around 180* of belt wrap.

This is the part that I just read few moments ago that has me saying screw it and just go with the 130A and set it up right and worry about it if a problem does arise. This is from MechMan Alternators.

"Single V belt and 4 rib serpentine belts will start to slip at about 150 amps worth of load. For minimal belt slip, 240 – 370 amp alternators should not be driven by anything narrower than a 6 rib serpentine or dual-V belt drive setup."

I also read from another source about making sure the belt is riding up in the groove of the pully and not down at the bottom of the groove and a tech article from Dragzine showing a chart from powermaster that states to put a socket on the alternator pulley and try to turn the alternator with a wrench (never specified what length I assume a standard 3/8" drive wrench) and that the pulley should not slip if it does tighten the belt up till the pulley tries to turn the engine over.

Thinking about that, I might need to tighten up the generator belt on my 56, I set the thing with about 1/4" of deflection like the shop manual says but I can still spin the generator pulley. might be why my light some times dimly lights up on the dash at idle.

Anyways yeah, I was looking at the 130A anyways but comments like what the old timer presents it makes me rehash what I was planning and rethink it. I still have the regulator with the delay on ebay saved in my search. Just need to add the alternator to my engine parts list and pick it up later.

[kramttocs]

Im just going to go with the 130 cause that was what I feared was it was the case is too close to the mounting bracket and doesnt allow the alternator to pivot over enough to get the belt on.

Plus out of curiosity I did a quick search on alternator belt wrap and all that. From what I am reading it looks like 130A is quite doable with a single V belt with proper belt wrap which ours is around 180* of belt wrap.

This is the part that I just read few moments ago that has me saying screw it and just go with the 130A and set it up right and worry about it if a problem does arise. This is from MechMan Alternators.

"Single V belt and 4 rib serpentine belts will start to slip at about 150 amps worth of load. For minimal belt slip, 240 – 370 amp alternators should not be driven by anything narrower than a 6 rib serpentine or dual-V belt drive setup."

I also read from another source about making sure the belt is riding up in the groove of the pully and not down at the bottom of the groove and a tech article from Dragzine showing a chart from powermaster that states to put a socket on the alternator pulley and try to turn the alternator with a wrench (never specified what length I assume a standard 3/8" drive wrench) and that the pulley should not slip if it does tighten the belt up till the pulley tries to turn the engine over.

Thinking about that, I might need to tighten up the generator belt on my 56, I set the thing with about 1/4" of deflection like the shop manual says but I can still spin the generator pulley. might be why my light some times dimly lights up on the dash at idle.

Anyways yeah, I was looking at the 130A anyways but comments like what the old timer presents it makes me rehash what I was planning and rethink it. I still have the regulator with the delay on ebay saved in my search. Just need to add the alternator to my engine parts list and pick it up later.

Just been following along (interesting read) but since you brought it up the 150 rule is what I based my decision on. I am running a 150 amp alternator with a single vbelt and haven't had any noise or slippage.

Powermaster told me 150 was perfectly fine with a single v and I figured they should know.

All because as Jim said - it's how much is asked of it.

If anything ever changes, will cross that bridge and worry about it at that time.

 

[Rusty_S85]

Just been following along (interesting read) but since you brought it up the 150 rule is what I based my decision on. I am running a 150 amp alternator with a single vbelt and haven't had any noise or slippage.

Powermaster told me 150 was perfectly fine with a single v and I figured they should know.

All because as Jim said - it's how much is asked of it.

If anything ever changes, will cross that bridge and worry about it at that time.

Yep and I understand the whole its only going to produce what is needed. But being as I have seen some really screwed up things with cars working on them I tend to gravitate towards worse case situation and try to plan for it.

Sure an alternator will not produce more than is needed. But if the regulator fails the alternator could go full field and put out max output. That is what the fuse is for, its to protect your electrical system in the case of a major failure of the alternator. Well if the thing fails and goes full field I am picturing belt slipping possibly being thrown off, fuse never blowing cause the recommended fuse for a 130A alternator is 175A. Then throw in the alternator belt is situated behind my dealer A/C belt I can see it throwing other belts which could be quite bad going down the highway doing 75 mph and have multiple belts get thrown due to the alternator belt throwing.

That is where my line of thought comes into and how can I prevent something like that in the off chance it did happen.

But I never heard the 150A rule before, I have seen on the forums 90A to 100A as being the stated by people as the limit. Seeing the 150A setting then that puts my mind more at ease as I can just go with the 130A alternator and instead of running a 175A fuse just run a 140/145A fuse in its place. Only way it would ever reach 130A is if the alternator actually failed cause even in a heavily depleted battery I dont think the alternator would shoot up to 130A to try and charge the battery up. Now I know you can burn an alternator up if you jumpstart a dead battery and have the alternator try and charge it. But I dont think an alternator would put out full field amperage with a heavily depleted battery, it should put out just enough amperage to power the systems and slightly more to charge the battery.

Thats why I think it is set in stone now I will be running the 130A large case and just swap out for the soft start regulators I have on watch on ebay and let it right. I just need to do the math at a later date to check alternator speed since my engine will be capable of turning 5,500 - 6,000 rpm and I wouldnt want to over rev the alternator. Ill be buying a new pulley anyways for my 3G since I want a single sheave since I wont be running a air pump.