hey guys so my alternator went out last night in my 93 bronco. i have an alternator off a 88 5.0 and i was wondering if it would work. it looks like there is one less wire on the 88 alternator? any ideas?

 

Does the 88 have an exterior fan? then it's a 2G (with a paltry max. output of 72A) and shouldn't be installed because it's a fire hazard, get a proper 3G and you'll be way happier. What happened to the stock alternator? usually they're quite easy to fix, believe me, I've replaced every bearing, the brushes and now the regulator and rotor and currently have an almost-new alternator.

 

well i replaced the brushes and regulator and it didnt seem to fix anything. then last night it finally went out completely

 

Does it make any grinding noise when you turn it? if it does maybe it's a bearing failure. But my guess is on the slip rings, those are the ones the brushes seat against, they're mounted on the rotor, look for excesive or uneven wear; if the rings look fine then look at the diodes in the rectifier for burn marks, you can also replace it if required.

 

Had similar issue, just swapped it out for one from a 94-96 explorer and gained 35 more amps, same mount, same plugs, had to change out the charge wire, the explorer model had a bigger gauge wire

 

so i had the alternator tested and it tested bad so i just bought a new one. anyways my battery gauge inside is still jumping around when the music is up or even sometimes when i just stop at a light. could this be caused by the starter relay? cause i followed the power wire back and thats where it went to.

 

No it's not the relay, depending on how big your system is, you might need a bigger alt, I went to a 130 amp but it still jumps around at a light or idle, does react better when driving though

 

You can upgrade your batt and starter cables to something like 4ga, it will help

 

ok thats what i figured... so i shouldnt worry about it jumping around alittle then?

 

Not unless it dives to 8 and stays there