I have a 70 watt alternator and have been thinking of going to a 1-WIRE 3G HD 150 watt ALTERNATOR for a few months. Is anybody running one of these and if you are, how do you like it?

 

I've been using one for over a year now in my 69 mustang and love it. Easy to wire, very stable voltage, decent output at idle. Haven't put one in my 90 F250 yet. I'm still trying to figure out which vehicles have one that would fit the best.

 

There's and article on how to do it and which one to use over on oilburners.net in their IDI helparticles at the top of the page. I believe they are using the one out of a Taurus.

 

Taurii, Mustangs, and some E-series vans apparently got that alternator - 130amps 3G, dubbed as the best OEM alternator out there. Still on my to-do list...

 

What some places forget to tell you is the one wire alternators don't start charging till you exceed a certain RPM.

Once you exceed that RPM, the alternator will continue to charge though.

Just went through that with a friend that installed one on a 350 Chevy motor and could not get it to charge.
Turned out he was just starting the engine and letting the engine idle so it was not charging.

If I remember right, 3000 RPM was the charge threshold before his started charging.

PowerMaster or something like that was the name on his.


I am running a two wire 150 amp on mine, great addition with all of the electric I use plowing snow at night

 

May be a difference in electronics. My 1 wire converted 3G in my Bronco will charge at idle without exciting it.

Jason

 

In a 1 wire application, you need to get above a certain rpm for the alt to work. In a 3g conversion, there are 3 wires, one of which is "hot in start" which provides the excitation so the alt begins charging immediately. I tried the powermaster in my stang but was not happy with the output at low rpm so I went with a 3g and haven't looked back. I will probably do the 3g mod on my 250 as soon as I have the first indication that the alt is failing.

 

Dave, what make alt. do you have???