3G Wow!! Everyone should put one in!!

[gear_head]

I was having charging system problems and tried swapping the alternator for a buddies spare, and then the voltage regulator, still no charge. Anyway, I decided the heck with it, EFI will be in soon and the stock system will have trouble putting out juice to run all of the "improvements". As it turns out the green "run hot" lead was severed under the dash. Anyway, I picked up a $20 3G alternator from pull-a part, swapped the pulleys and wired it in (nice to get rid of the volt. reg.), and WOW. 14.85V at idle with the headlights on!! One of the easiest and best $/improvement ratio I've done on this rig. If you go junkyard diving make sure to grab as much of the donor's harness as you can and the "mega fuse"

 

[joser]

What vehicle did you get it out of?

 

[airman]

no doubt, whats it from that fits? 3 wire I assume.

 

[ricks77eb]

I got a 3G from a mid 90's ford taurus. It has a sticker right on the housing that says 130 amp. I used the drawing from BC Broncos tech library to wire it up (1 wire), it has been working great every since. Took it to the auto parts store and had them put a meter on it while the truck was running, and it was over 70 amps at idle and it pegged out their meter (over 100 amps) at about 2000 rpm's. Very good upgrade.

Rick

 

[joser]

How difficult is the pulley swap? I still run V belts.

 

[23firefly]

It's very easy to swap pulleys. I did the same thing, all you need is a puller tool and then swap out the new one. Very easy, I even put alittle locktite on it to make sure it couldn't come off.

 

[ponch0v]

The only problem you may face with a v-belt on the 3g is some minor belt slippage/sqeal at the pulley. The v-belt does not have enough surface area in contact with the pulley to spin the 3g when it first turns on (at start up).

 

[68 Broncoholic]

Seems like a nice option, what did you use for the mounting hdw?
This might not pertain to you but a buddy added a big altinator. Can't remember which one but it cooked his battery over time. Started out making some hissing sounds and then smelt like rotten eggs.
Seems he was over charging the battery. He changed out the altinator with a stock type and got a Yellow top Optima. No more problems. Its nice to have a gell cell.

 

[KJHill]

Yah 3G's are great! I've got the 160 amp one in mine. It does wine at start up, but once it gets warmed up it stops. lots of power.

 

[gear_head]

Mine came out of a mid 90's cougar 3.8L?? I found 3 or 4 at pull-a-part without even trying and grabbed the cleanest one.
Ahh, that makes sense about the squeal. I thought I needed to adjust the belt. Maybe that's why some run dual v-belts.

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

Seems like a nice option, what did you use for the mounting hdw?
This might not pertain to you but a buddy added a big altinator. Can't remember which one but it cooked his battery over time. Started out making some hissing sounds and then smelt like rotten eggs.
Seems he was over charging the battery. He changed out the altinator with a stock type and got a Yellow top Optima. No more problems. Its nice to have a gell cell.

Generally speaking the 3G has a more stable regulator than the older style. The 3G's regulator's do require a sense line and if stock wiring harnesses are used for this they are prone to corrosion in the fusable link about 6 inches back into the harness. This then causes resistance which causes the regulator to think that the system voltage is lower than it actually is. Got to love fusable links.

I would also like to clarify that the Optima battery is NOT a gel cell battery. It is an AGM (asorbed glass mat) battery. As is the Orbital and Intimidator. This is an extremely common misconception that Optima has done very little to correct. (Which has always irked me). But at least about 5 years ago they started putting it in the really fine print on the brochures.
A gel cell is the only battery that can be mounted upside down or under water. It is a higher quality construction than an AGM, and also very expensive. They are not the best for starting applications either, but are absolutely the best for deep cycles in an extreme enviroment.
Here is a link to an old tech article:
http://www.svapowerproducts.com/html/batterey_articles.html

Now this may sound kind of funny, as I wrote the articles, but I do not agree 100% with what was stated in them. The information came from a very good source, but real life testing since they were written seems to lean towards GELS working alright (not awesome) in a starting applications, if they are oversized for the application they are awesome.

 

[Aikidoka]

The only problem you may face with a v-belt on the 3g is some minor belt slippage/sqeal at the pulley. The v-belt does not have enough surface area in contact with the pulley to spin the 3g when it first turns on (at start up).

I've had no issues with mine and it's v-belt. Well except for that EGR pipe melting through the 4 gauge wire. But that was an EFI swap issue and me just not getting back under the hood to check clearances.