I ended up getting a 3G from my local junkyard today for 35 bucks. Its almost brand new, guy said I can bring it back and he will get a brand new one if I have trouble. I got it off a Mercury Sable and its still under warranty. It is the 3rd one in the picture (8.25 pivot mount) bolted up perfect on the 302.

The wire cutters I brought with me were not that great so I cut all the wires short.

Everything is hooked up but the charge wire.
I bought some 4 gauge wire that I was gonna use to go from alternator to solenoid but the terminals on it are to big to fit on the post of the alternator. What should I do? Can I use 6 gauge wire?

Also do I need the fuse between the solenoid and the alternator? Every parts store I went to today said they never heard of a 175a mega fuse.

 

Keep the 4-gauge cable but get a new end that is for 1/4" stud, your local AutoZone should have those in the section where they sell battery cables - cut the old end off the cable, solder/crimp the new end on, add some heat-shrink and you're good to go.

On the fuse question, a fuse is installed to protect the battery in case the rectifier in the alternator shorts out - theoretically that would be like direct short to ground and can cause all kinds of trouble ranging from just melting the cable to a full-blown fire that burns your truck to the ground. Will any of that really happen - don't know, and I ain't eager on finding out, hence why I have a fuse in my truck. AutoZone carries the 175-amp MegaFuse, it's in the section where all the regular fuses, toggle switches, universal horn buttons, and the likes of them are.

 

Thats what I thought but the guy at Oreilys tried to make me look/feel stupid saying that it is not needed. I am goin to Autozone to get it tomorrow. Thanks.

 

my autozone accused me of being a **** poor mech. when i collected on there lifetime warranty an im not a **** poor mech.

 

If you can't find a mega fuse which is also called a wafer fuse, or the technical name ANL fuse, that big at autozone, try your local GOOD car stereo shop. You'll probably pay a little more for it but they'll have it and the fuse holder.

EDIT: To comment on the autozone lifetime warranty, they tried to give me trouble one time and I had to have a mechanic that had done some work on my daily driver call up there and talk to a guy he knew to get them to replace my alternator under the warranty. I went through 4 alternators in 6 months before I got one that has lasted. This was on my daily driver 01 Mitsubishi Montero Sport.

 

The way a parts store treats its customer greatly varies from place to place - my local AZ folks have always been good to me. The guy at O'Reily that told the OP a fuse is not needed cannot be trusted on tech advice, which actually holds true for most parts store employees - if they really knew things as good as they often think they do, they would probably make a better living as mechanics. Of course that ain't always true, and I have noticed that a good indicator of someone's knowledge is often the very vehicle they drive - the kid with a lifted truck or a lowrider or the guy with a well-maintained older vehicle seem to be more hands-on than someone with a ride that obviously left the dealership floor not too long ago... In any case, this is getting way off topic - do install a fuse in the charge cable, and the suggestion for a stereo shop visit to get the parts needed is a very good one.

 

Is this what the mega fuse looks like?

175 Amp Mega fuse - AMG175 mega fuse

I guess i would need the holder as well.

 

Well I have been to Oreilys, Autozone, Advance, a large Industrial supplier and a High Performance automotive shop today.

Everybody talks to me like I am freaking dumber than a rock and say I do not need the fuse I am looking for. One guy told me "I've never known anybody to have a fuse between alternator and solenoid".

Im getting sick and tired of these parts stores talking to me like I am a dumb punk just b/c I am 20yrs old. Most of the guys I talked to don't even know anything about an old Ford. I finally told one guy I have been working on these since I was about 7 and I now have 4 of them of my own and I know them pretty good, it finally shut him up.

Anyway, lol. I found a fuse at AutoZone but they didn't have the holder and they said they couldnt get it. I guess I will have to order it on the internet.

Everytime I said I was upgrading to a 130amp internally regulated alternator they were like "oh and what makes you think you should do that, do you know what you are doing?"

I said well I am sticking to my plan and I am going to do what my online buddies have told me, since they have actually done this and know what they are talking about.

 

The parts guys would hear my truck coming and start drawing lots to see who could go on break. They would ask me questions about the fords because I put them thru such hell trying to find parts for me.... I was a young kid too, but the parts monkeys were younger or stupider.... They eventually would just let me go in back to the books, or give me the keyboard to find the stuff myself. Now I just go in with part numbers after doing my own homework because teaching these kids on how to do their job got old.

 

She looks right at home under there. Still missing my charge wire. I have my cables made, just need to get the fuse holder for my inline fuse. Bought some plastic loom to go over my wires today so I can tidy them up.

Came off of a 1996 Mercury Sable. It wasent on the car long before the 3.0 DOHC in the sable spit the rods out the side of it. Lucky me I guess, lol.

I guess I won't have to listen to the old 45amp strain now just b/c the lights and radio are on, lol.
Now I need to upgrade my headlight harness and head lights so I get full effect of this upgrade.

Very very cool that the old alternator/regulator harness will plug right back up if need be. I have it stored away, never planing on bringing it out of storage either.

 

Blake that alternator looks like factory installed there, good job! Out of curiosity, did you have to grind the ribs on the front casing some to clear the pulley, or it fit perfect? I've had to do it both ways, depending on what pulley I'm using sometimes I gotta break out the air grinder for some clearancing on them ribs, they don't need much tho, just enough to mess things up.

As for the parts folks - at this point I usually go with "I'm the grease monkey, you're the parts monkey, now parts monkey go fetch parts so grease monkey can go back to the grease", seems to works good and they both get the message to not argue with me and at the same time don't get all pissed off and hostile in the long run (it's nice to have parts folks on your side, cause them evil corporate polices are only as strict as the people who are supposed to enforce them). IIRC it was only once that I had to very bluntly state to the parts guy that that I ask them for parts and not advice, and it is their business to sell me parts and not advice - and he didn't last long enough to hold a grudge against me anyways, I guess other customers had the same issue with him as I did.

On your charge cable issue with the fuse - I actually don't use a holder on mine, just the cable is bolted to one of the fuse ends, and the other end is bolted directly to the battery's positive terminal. The cable is 1/0 welding cable that's just too fat to want to to move easily on its own, and there are several other heavy-gauge cables bolted to the same battery terminal as well and then zip-tied to the charge cable, so the MegaFuse sees no movement or vibration at all and therefore does not fall apart on me. Yes it's a cheap setup, but it works flawlessly A holder would be nice I guess, but then I gotta fight that 1/0 monster again and cut it and add more ends on it, or just move it and find some other piece of the same size - yeah, not feeling the motivation for that mess, lol

 

Thanks, I was very surprised. All I had to do was swap out pulleys and I was done. Didn't have to do anything else at all.

The original metric bottom mounting bolt from the Mercury sable was to long to use on my vehicle. I went to Lowes and they had a good assortment of metric bolts, found a shorter one that fit my needs and I was good to go.

I'm ready to get my charge wire on and fire this baby up. I had it tested at the parts store before I put it on. What a monster this thing is compared to the 45amp I had.

My other dents and Bronco will be getting a 3G in the near future also.

Thanks for everybody's input.

 

Oh, what I usually do with that bolt is just drill the threads out in the alternator housing and use a 3/8" bolt with a nut on the other side - that's actually how the small-frame 130-amp alternators are done, dunno why the large-frame ones got that goofy M8 bolt instead. M8 is also too small if the adjustment slot in the alternator bracket was cut for 3/8" bolt (roughly the size of an M10 bolt), and depending on the size and thickness of the washer used may cause the washer to fold up when you tighten the bolt, which looks just not right...

 

Stock size metric bolt was no problem on my bracket, fit good. Just had to get one a different length.


I cranked the truck up and it was putting out about 14.30 volts(at idle, about 600rpm) I turned on high beams, heater on high, wipers, and radio, thats all the truck has. Still putting out 14.25 volts.

I cant drive the truck just yet as the ends on the fuse are still exposed. I couldnt find any heat shrink wrap to fit on the fuse or the ring terminal ends. Anybody know where I can find some?

I dressed the other wires up with some looms.

I forgot to paint the alternator pulley while it was off lol.

Anybody reading this post that doesn't have a 3G alternator, I highly reccomend getting one. For one to get rid of the factory junk. Two, any aftermarket accessories will fairly quickly ruin the factory alternator. My factory 45 amp struggled to do anything.

Only draw back I see is its like 190 bucks if it goes bad if you cant find another used one.

 

Wes, that does look like a nice setup with the washer and the bracket there.

For the cable ends and the fuse, I know RadioShack has assorted packs of heat-shring that has some real fat pieces in there, or you can try Harbor Freight for their $1.99 rolls of heat shrink. However before you do that I'd suggest that you straighten the connections at the fuse (cables going in and out straight, not at an angle like it is now), and then after the heat shrink zip-tie that harness to the one that has the plastic loom on it already - reason for this is I'm not quite sure how goo the fuse is put together, and having the cables like that may just vibrate it to pieces over time...

Also, I wish my 3G charges at 14V, all I get at idle (550-600 rpms) is around 13V, less if I start turning on lights and what not. Then again the pulley I use is 3" in diameter, if I can find something that is around 2" that would speed up the alternator by 50% and really make my day... How big is your pulley?