Goodness... my girlfriend's truck (94 F150 XLT) just had the same exact thing happen to it. We went through all the paperwork the guy had saved before we bought the truck and found that it had been through 5 alts in the same amount of years. 2 weeks ago she calls me at 2230 to tell me her truck is on fire and on the way home on a flatbed... alt upper wiring harness shorted and completely melted, droppin both hot wires onto the a/c comp and arcing so bad it literally welded the bracket mounting bolt to the bracket (sigh). We had just replaced that harness last year!!!!

I have a 95 150 xl, and have never had one, single problem with the alt.... hmmmm. What in the world is going on here? Her truck ran all the volt tests with acceptable voltage parameters, and I have been all under the hood looking for even a leak in the wiring harnesses... is this just a bad design on the alt, and the 3G is definately something that will retard the problem, if not eliminate it?

Also, watch out... the wiring harness is available only at Ford for 74 bucks... the first one we got required splicing, shrink wrap, etc... I thought that pretty silly. The second we got was the entire harness for the same price, including both alt connectors and the starter relay connectors, in flexible tubing with the fusable links already installed... anyone interested in this part number, email me (richardh247@***.net) and I'll give you the bolt-on part number. Second saved me about 2 hours work and looks a helluva lot nicer than the splice/shirink wrap/tape job I did on the original... looks exactly like stock.

Are the 3G alts available in chrome, does anyone know? MSD perhaps? Thanks a million guys, this forum is awsome!