I REALLY fixed my charging problem this time!

Stang8URMPRT · May 9, 2005

What a pain in my ass. I was dropping voltage everywhere. So I replaced the ground cable... Well, go to take the bolt out of the block, and the bolt breaks lol! So I bolted the new one onto the a/c bracket. Then I ran a nice 4 gauge from that to the sway bar mount. Man, the grounds are so much better now! Dropping maybe 30-50mV compaired to 200 mV's before. Then, I made my own Alt wire. I upgraded my alt to a 3G 150 amp, and I said, what the hell... I'm not pulling any more amps then stock so I'm not going to upgrade the wire... WRONG. That made a huge difference in keeping voltage up! Nice fat 4 gauge wire from the alt to the starter solenoid. Thing will sit at almost 15 volts at idle (Underdrive pulleys on the water pump and crank, overdrive alternator pulley), and about 14.2-14.3 after the car warms up to normal operation temperature. (things aren't as efficient when hot). Fan comes on, voltage doesn't move.... headlights on and fan, volts goes to about 14.0... a/c, headlights, and fan on... about 13.7-13.8 volts... Before I was dropping to around 12.0-12.5 volts with everything on. Can you say major difference? I would recommend to anyone doing a 3G alt upgrade to replace your battery ground with a nice 4 gauge, run a 4 gauge body ground... and run atleast a 4 gauge alt wire. Fixed all my problems!

I'd like to thank David (5spGT), JT (HISSIN50) and jrichker. Thanks guys.

Daggar · May 9, 2005

Did you install an inline fuse with your new 4 ga. cable? If not, it's cheap and will save you an underhood fire should you ever have an internal alternator short.

Stang8URMPRT · May 9, 2005

Daggar said:
Did you install an inline fuse with your new 4 ga. cable? If not, it's cheap and will save you an underhood fire should you ever have an internal alternator short.

Yessum sir. Radio Shack rules.

SINSITYSTANG · May 9, 2005

I would also recommend installing an inline fuse unless you wanna smoke that baby someday!

Daggar · May 9, 2005

Stang8URMPRT said:
Yessum sir. Radio Shack rules.

HISSIN50 · May 9, 2005

glad to hear you got it all figured out and fixed, Nick.

Dtowncats · May 10, 2005

What you did is basically the Big 3. It is well known on the car audio forums. It is replacing the Battery - to chassis wire, Alternator to Battery + wire, and the chassis to engine wire. You are supposed to fuse the alt to battery wire incase it would catch on fire, so your battery won't explode. I did this with 1/0 welding wire with a stock alt and what a difference. I can turn on A/C, radio, headlights, and defroster and I don't see any voltage drops. I love it. No more dimming lights!

SamSnyder · May 10, 2005

My only problem is that the Los Angeles boneyards are picked clean of 3G's. I heard that the Windstar alt was correct, and toured through the truck section of the U-Pick U-Pull, only to find that every one had been cherry-picked. I swear, 10 in a row, everything else but no alt! I suspect that the employees must be getting them, because some of those ones had just hit the yard that day.

nito88stang · May 10, 2005

no, the junk yards take the alts out of the cars and sell the cores to places that rebuild them. So next time you get an alt from autozone u know where it came from.

jrichker · May 10, 2005

I am gald to see that you ran 4 gauge wire to both the alternator & ground. A lot of guys forget about the ground, but it is just as important as the power feed from the alternator to the battery.

neikoblu · May 10, 2005

Do you have the sites where I can get an over drive pulley and a 3G alternator. I am in the same boat you were in right now.

Stang8URMPRT · May 10, 2005

neikoblu said:
Do you have the sites where I can get an over drive pulley and a 3G alternator. I am in the same boat you were in right now.

Sure thing, this is where I got mine....

http://store.summitracing.com/defau...earchinresults=false&N=0&target=egnsearch.asp

HISSIN50 · May 10, 2005

I *think* Steeda sells one too (Nick, didnt David mention that before?). Summit is probably easier, but options are good.

neikoblu · May 10, 2005

I looked at the summit alternator pulley. Why does it say that it slows down the alternator. I thought that it was supposed to speed it up a bit

HISSIN50 · May 10, 2005

to speed up an accessory, all else being equal, the new pulley should be smaller than the old one (overdriving the accessory). I dont have personal experience with that pulley, so i wont comment.

good luck.

todthebod · May 10, 2005

Hey which wires do I splice into on the alt. to get charge to the battery. Also what size fuse 150A?

5spd GT · May 10, 2005

I have read that Steeda sells one...but not sure...haven't checked it out...but I think something like mustangparts.com sells a 3g overdrive pulley as well...I don't think that is the web address but it is something like that...I wish I could remember

I have the ASP one from summit but I haven't put it on yet...

Anyways congrats Nick...I need to change some of my grounds as well...I'm sure they have seen better days...

5LugFoxFanatic · May 10, 2005

Well I know what I'm doing this weekend. Thanks Yo!

Stang8URMPRT · May 10, 2005

I called Steeda first to get the pulley because they are about 200 miles south of me.. So I wouldn't have to wait too long for it.. Well.. they said they were on back order.. so that's why I got it from summit.

HISSIN50 · May 11, 2005

Stang8URMPRT said:
I called Steeda first to get the pulley because they are about 200 miles south of me.. So I wouldn't have to wait too long for it.. Well.. they said they were on back order.. so that's why I got it from summit.

Sorry David - my bad on thinking you knew about the Steeda pulley. I knew one of the two of you had tossed that out on a thread a little while back. I need to go take some ginko.

I REALLY fixed my charging problem this time!

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