Has anyone performed this upgrade, and if so, did you buy the wiring kit or just spliced cables?:16suspect Can anyone please confirm if these setup works on Mavericks ? http://www.racesystems.com/3gproj/index.htm Please read very last paragraph as that is the wiring pattern I used: http://www.geocities.com/smithmonte/Auto/3G_130A_Alternator_Upgrade.htm "On your 84 external voltage regulator, you have the following: F, S, A, I Unplug the wiring harness going into the external voltage regulator. Either splice into with your new wire or make a blade connector that will go into the old wiring harness. You will need to tap into two of those wires: The F will not be used. The S will go directly to the I on the 3G. The A will go directly to the A on the 3G. The I will not be used. Looking at it from the 3G viewpoint: The BAT goes to the inline fuse. The stator connector goes to the S connector on the 3G. The A connector goes to the A wire on the old wiring harness. The S connector goes to the stator connector on the back of the 3G. The I connector goes to the S wire on the old wiring harness." As I already installed the 3G alternator but I am getting low voltage readings with it and I am concerned if this could be a faulty alternator or a misconnected system, please post any comments ! :bananaman
From what I read on those articles you have 3 connections on the 3g unit. 1 Main battery terminal, 1 3 wire terminal for the internal regulator, and a one wire stator terminal. The S terminal of the internal regulator(on the 3g) goes to the Stator terminal on the 3g unit. a (of the 3g) is connected to the a terminal of the old (external) regulators harness. I (of the 3g) connects to the s terminal of the old regulator harness. And of course the batt is connected to the main batt terminal. If thats how you got it hooked up and all the wires are good with solidly soldered splices then its probably the Alternator. Of couse, you could take it off and go down to your nearest Autozone and have it tested. This is a mod I will be making but haven't got around to it. When you get it up and running let me know how it works.
Fyi I finally managed to upgrade to 3G :bananaman alternator 130 amps output, by following the previous information, but I must correct that the right wiring is a bit different and I found this after driving the new alternator to a repair shop and testing it on a machine, then I came back home and tried several connections, the working one is: Looking at it from the 3G viewpoint: The BAT goes to the inline fuse. The stator connector goes to the S connector on the 3G. The A connector goes to the A wire on the old wiring harness. The S connector goes to the stator connector on the back of the 3G. The I connector goes to the I wire on the old wiring harness (as this last one comes from the ALT light on the cluster). I hope this can help anyone willing to get more amps and don't forget to upgrade the wiring to at least 4 AWG on the BAT cable and adding an inline fuse, and also as an extra protection as I did add a 30 amps fuse on the I wire that comes from original external regulator connector to the alternator.
Yeah that image clears it up. By the way they showed it there you could attach the A terminal to the batt terminal at the alt. That would make a nice clean installation with only 1 batt wire and one smaller sense wire. Thanks for the info.
Readings I'm getting : 12.81 v with engine off 14.79 v cold idle engine :bananaman I have a .zip file with 2 videos on it for you to see how it handles the headlights and 3 amplifiers playing a BASS CREW test CD, but it is 16.7 Mb so I cannot upload it, sorry.
What vehicles does the 3G alternator come on?? I have an alternator from a mid-90's Thunderbird, and it had power everything, so its gotta be a strong output alternator. How can I tell??...does have "3G" cast on the housing somehere??
Mine is form a 93 Mustang 5.0L, most others have mounting brackets that are cast into the housing, and won't work.
the 94-98 mustangs, early 90's Taurus/Tbird/Cougar all with the 3.8 had a 3G as well, but you'll have to tap the hole to accept a bolt.
I just finished the swap and wired it using the same diagram lowriderick posted up on post #3. I also converted to serpentine setup at the same time, and put in a 150A re-settable fuse inline close to the alternator. I didn't like where the hot post was stock, so I took the alternator apart and "re-clocked" it so the post was up on top on the fender side, at around 10 o'clock. Also, if using the stock 5.0 serpentine brackets, you may need to grind a little away from the alternator bracket so this larger alternator will fit in there.
Lowrider, where did you get the inline mega-fuse holder? I haven't been able to find one locally at all...
Your battery to alternator wire should be 4 AWG - it looks like you are using a smaller wire. 12 and 10 AWG is too small to handle the higher chare rate of the 3G alternator.
I don't have the cable hooked up yet, in that picture. It is the big black one going along the fender that looks like 3/8" fuel line. I actually put red heater hose over it from battery to fuse, and again from fuse to alternator, just to act as 1) warning that it is a hot wire, and 2) thicker insulation against heat and friction. Fuse is mounted on front of shock tower so first cable is only about 10" long. Then from there to battery in trunk. I used #2 cable all the way, and redid all my grounds with #2 as well.
3G Upgrade I recently did a 3G, 130 amp upgrade. I did 3G -1 wire; took all those other wires and regulator off. I just had to hook up on 4 gauge wire from the alt. So far all is working fine - no fuse in the line.
