How many volts should my alternator be creating?

[mduenas]

For my dedicated ground, and power wire, for now, will 6 gauge from homedepot for the time being? I have to pull alternator to attach the ground, as the only ground right now is it being mounted to the motor.

I am headed to Home Depot now to get an multimeter

 

[laserfish]

I did this for my alternator case ground and used a 2 or 4 ga battery cable with ring terminal ends on each end. Worked well for me and didn't cost too much and already had the terminals in place.

 

[mduenas]

I now am paying really close attention. When I start the truck, I am at 13.5v for a second or two, the. It drops to 12.9-12.7.

When I first hit the gas I get 14v, then it drops to 12.8 unless I have around 2500rpm, then it will read 13.4-13.1 the moment I let off the gas or rpms drop I am at the lower range again.

 

[mduenas]

So the reading at the battery and the gauge are the same. With engine off I have the same voltage to the batter studs and ground mounted on my fender. With the engine on, black wire from multimeter on a ground, and red on the power line coming out of the alternator, I get the same reading as the battery when the truck is on.

I half hazardly attached the ground the to alternator and the voltage went up slightly. From the multimeter reading it read between 13.3-13.4, the gauge in the truck read 13.1-13.2. I took the ground off and it went to 13-13.1. In the car said 13. For one, it is never this high when idling in gear, always lower, in park it seems to be higher.

So just from that I’m assuming it has a bad ground right now. But that still doesn’t seem high enough? No voltage drop from back of alternator to battery, same reading

 

[bronconut73]

You can get a 3G from a junk yard for as little as $25 bucks. Easy peasy test, cheap too.

 

[mduenas]

You can get a 3G from a junk yard for as little as $25 bucks. Easy peasy test, cheap too.

Is it from almost any Ford in the 90’s?

 

[bronconut73]

One of the fellas here posted a great list.

Search Google-classicbroncos for 3G vehicle list.

It's a bunch, including cars like Taurus and Contour, and the more common trucks.