Am I the only one who has not switched to 3g? I stare at the puny "this is a guess" 14 gauge wire going from the alternator to the battery that I can't even change to a larger wire and laugh. My mothers 4 cylinder honda has a 4 gauge charging wire for goodness sake! But I also realize that that's only one of it's setbacks.

 

I did the swap on my 86. Great mod.

I used 0 gauge wire though

 

You may be the only one that hasnt changed the 2G out. I changed my truck to the 3G and worry less about fire and smoke.

 

I still have the stock 2G, although if/when I ever get around to swapping in the 351 I have sitting in the garage, the 3G alternator on the engine will go in the truck at the same time.

 

It's the melting plug and its fire hazard that convinced me to switch.
Tracing the cause of a dead battery more than once made me realize where the fault lies.

 

I still have the stock alternator. I have replaced in once a couple years ago with 275k miles. I have not had any issues with it.

 

what trucks came with 2g and 3g? My 95 5.0's alternator is still stock with 158,000 miles on it,no problems,don't see myself changing it any time soon.

 

I would like to know the answer to that too.

My truck had the original alternator on it at over 200,000 miles. I changed it because I thought it may have been related to battery issues and just figured that it might go out at any time.

 

2G=external cooling fan on the alternator. 3G= internal cooling fan. No 2Gs after 1992/93 model year. No fire and smoke with 3G.

 

Thats good to know. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Both of mine are the stockers. I have no idea what they are though.

 

Converted my 92 over to a 3G using a harness out of a wrecked 96, and a alternator out of a E150. Total project cost me less then $10 using salvage yard parts.

Hardest part of the convertion was torching the old 2G out as the lower bolt had fused to the bracket and 2 days worth of PB blaster soaking didn't loosen it.

 

OK this answers a lot of things going on with my 87 bronco II !!

 

I've have a 2G alternator. Wouldn't mind having a 3G in there though.