Has anybody splice into the ammeter wires with bigger gauge wire? Or can tell me the procedure?

 

What is it you are trying to do by doing this?
The way I see it the system was made with that size wire I would leave it but that's me.
Dave - - - -

 

What FuzzFace2 said... are you rewiring your truck?

 

Makes me wonder if trying to upsize the wire to make the ammeter functional with a higher output alternator. I don't think I would do that if that is what the end goal is.

 

Are you trying to burn the truck down? Cheap aftermarket ammeters should never be used. The stock ammeter is a shunt and doesn't pass amperage through it.

 

Sorry for dumb question ! Up grading charge cable and thought i could copy the original wires in to the amp meter . But never mind i just run them to the battery

 

No not a dumb question we just did not know why you wanted to do it and we did not want you to "burn the truck down" by doing something that should not be done.
I know what you upgrade the stock ALT to the 3G you have to rewire the amp gauge as it can not take the higher out put of the 3G ALT.

When you say charge wires what wires are they?
Is it all the wires from the ALT to where ever they go or just the large output wire from ALT to solenoid?
If just the output then I don't see any issues but I cant see why you would want to do all of them?
As long as all connections are clean and tight the charge system should work as the factory had it.

When I got my truck the ALT wiring was a mess.
In rebuilding the truck, cab off frame, I swapped in a different harness and the plug did not match the ALT the truck had.
Because the ALT worked and I did not want to hack the harness I made a little adaptor harness to join the 2 together and it works as the factory had wanted.
If this ALT should stop working and I need a new ALT I will do the 3G ALT upgrade.
Dave ----

 

The black and white wires that run back to charge your camper or trailer ( 10 ga or 12 ga).I have a Lance camper, and bought a new lance 6 way plug with bigger gauge charge wires 8 ga.The truck is all original,thinking the ALT is a 40 amp. Eventually I want to swap 3G and volt meter and headlight wire harness. I notice on LMT they have a Direct replacement one wire hight output ALT they sell? Well it just fit my truck without all that conversion stuff? I very much APPRECIATE all u guys help!!!

 

I do not like the special one wire alternators. They all use some sort of gimmick to get them online to charge, and also what are you going to do when out of state and the alternator goes out? It would be much more convenient to go to a local store and pick one up.

I would not get all worried about the camper charge wire. This is my opinion; I believe you should not charge most batteries much over a 20 amp rate in the first place. A battery likes to be brought up gradually from a discharged state. The theory I promote and I haven't had anyone say it hasn't worked yet, is to put the camper charge circuit on a 30 amp circuit breaker, with a 10 gauge wire running to the rear to feed the camper. You can have this along with a continuous duty solenoid, or even a bosch type 30 amp foglight relay would probably work, to disconnect the camper charge wire when the truck key is turned off.

There is the possibility that the camper batteries can be discharged very very low. When the truck key is turned on, the truck's battery is going to try and feed the camper batteries all it can, which can be a lot. If this happens and the charge gets over 30amps, the circuit breaker will trip and stop it. When the circuit breaker cools off it will automatically reset and it will try again. It will keep doing this, each time the circuit breaker will last a little longer till the batteries in the camper are high enough not to draw over 30 amps charge. The resistance in the long 10 gauge wire run also helps regulate higher charge rates and bring them down to a manageable level.

 

Ok got it the new camper uses larger gauge wire than the old one to charge the battery in it.
If the truck is set up like my older tow cars / trucks it used 10 gauge wires run down the frame rail to the trailer plug out back. The battery charge wire hooked right to the tow battery with a breaker for protection.
The other 10 gauge wire was for trailer brakes and hooked to an adjustable resistor under the hood that the controller inside hooked to.

I don't know if I would upgrade that frame wiring just because the new plug as larger wire in it.
The Lance plug may have the larger wiring because todays tow cars / trucks ALT put out a lot more amps than our old trucks do.
Now if you plan to upgrade to a 3G them maybe upgrade the wires but I still don't see the need.

As for the 1 wire ALT I am not a fan of them for 2 reasons.
If you are on the road and it craps out where do you get a new one?
On another old car forum I am on guys that did the 1 wire ALT would end up with dead batteries but the ALY always tested good. The reason was the ALT sensing wire gets it feed back from the ALT output post and it told the ALT all was good and cut back on the output. Well all was not good as the battery was not being charged. When they ran the sensing wire into the cars harness or better to the battery no more dead batteries as the ALT was now getting the real reading of what the battery had for power.

If the old ALT in my truck craps out and I have the time & money I will upgrade to a 3G ALT, do the needed wiring change because the factory AMP gauge cant handle to power output, and replace the APM gauge with a Rocket Man volte gauge. Oh I will be running 10 gauge wire down the frame rail for trailer battery & brakes.
Just my .02
Dave ----

 

There you have it the Dave's have spoke LOL
We both said about the same thing.
Dave ----

 

Thank you much

 

Well I need some advice. The alternator on my 82 F100 4.9 just went out and I need to replace it. Driving with the heater motor blowing, windshield wipers on, along with the headlights - the charge was just barely above 12v. (I put in a rocketman voltmeter when I had the gauges out, just wired the positive to a key on fuse and the negative grounded on the back of the cluster). Anyways, now the alternator is completely dead after a couple months of squealing lol My truck has AC and the alternator has 2 v belts. I want to upgrade it as I dont think it was more than 60 or 70 amps. Eventually I want to haul a popup truck camper and accessories. Reading through Garys site I am getting myself a little confused as to which alternator I should look for. I do know I want new, as it sits under the smog pump thing I dont want to deal with a lemon used one. Any suggestions?

 

I think it's the Taurus & Mustang that have been identified as good contributors, at least for V-8s.

 

Are you a member on Gary's site and if so you can ask there as I know they were just talking about the 3G ALT swap and what ones to use. Now I don't know if they got into the 300 six / 4.9 motor & what will fit it. To tell you I have not looked that deep into this as my ALT is still working and I hope for a long time as I don't have money for the 3Gatthis time.
Oh if not a member sign up over there I know some of us are.

I guess what we could do is see if the v8's and the 300 six might use the same stock ALT's. If so then I think if the Taurus & Stang 3G works on v8's then it should work on the 300.
Dave ----