Try and post a pic of it. I don't know which part you mean. If it is actually a ground, you'll need to replace it. If it's just a clip to hold wires in place a wrap tie will work great!
It's amazing how everyone needs a 130A alt these day on their old, no option vehicles... My '69 428 Cobra Jet Fairlane came with a 42A and served just fine for at least 25 years... I'm not sure what's on it at the moment, but probably a 55A as those were common on the later vehicles... Now if you want to use a electric fan and/or large stereo system, a 130A is a good choice... Note the original alt wiring will need to be upgraded or bypassed altogether if a large amp alt is used...
Yeah, that stock wiring cannot handle that kind of current flow. I wonder how many people are oblivious to that fact. I'm constantly hearing people talk about these high amperage alternator swaps on older cars.
Most people are completely oblivious to it. Someone linked to the FSB forum earlier, I've read a few threads that ended in truck fires on that site. Personally I went to the 90A 3G, but everything I have hooked up has had its own wiring and fusing added, anything that was added to the stock electrical system either got the wiring beefed up, or removed from the stock wiring harness. As long as you don't just tap into the fuse block, stock wiring, etc., you don't have to worry about it as much as the stock components don't magically start pulling more amps, except the lighting, but I think that should be fine.
I rewired everything in the charging system except for the light circuit. It's not just bolt one on and see what burns. I did have to replace a few bulbs though. All of the factory 3g's from Ford are regulated to around 14.1-14.5 volts. That's only about 0.5 volts higher than the original equipment. A properly wired charging system will only produce the needed amperage and as long as everything is fused and designed properly, you shouldn't have any issues at all. The ones that burn to the ground had problems beforehand or weren't thought out when modified.
well I just put a connector on it to make it function but it was supposed to keep the wires down. it was that small black ground. injected, why jump to a more expensive 3g then if that's the case? what about a 2g? EDIT: wow I did not notice all these posts
To an extent. However, depending on fuse location, wires will burn before fuses. Next you point out- Fuseable links! ... To which I would reply, get good at replacing those. Just remember a fuseable link is just a wire that's supposed have insulation that doesn't light on fire when the wire melts. Also, you can have a device pulling amperage under the threshold to blow the fuse, but above the threshold to melt the wire. We go to my standby example for this day and age. Cigarette lighter as a power socket. I'm also going to not be car specific on this. The wiring to the cigarette lighter is generally some of the beefiest you will find under the dash, and typically on the highest fuse in the box because the cigarette lighter just dumps power into it's element. Thus the cigarette lighter will theoretically pull down the entire available amperage of your alternator. As it warms up it warms up the wire (or if it's a hot day and the wire is already warm) as the wire warms up it becomes able to pass more power (lower resistance) until it either ignites or pops the fuse. The problem is that any imperfection or corrosion in the wire will heat up faster than the rest of the wire and also act as sort of a current trap. If this trap gets hot enough it can and will ignite under the right circumstances and begin an electrical fire under your dash. This is unfortunately true for all of the wiring. So if your a paranoid guy like me, after you put in the bigger alt, you disable your cigarette lighter. The 2G models have a bad airflow design and have a tendency towards thermal breakdown and then melting into a pile of slag in your engine bay. Also fire. Also, I spent more on a stock replacement alt and VR than I did on my 3G from pick-n-pull. When I put in the 90A 3G all of my lights got brighter and no longer increased intensity with RPMs (an obvious sign that the stock alternator is insufficient for the task at hand). I also have been able to add in my own accessory fuse box and add-on some custom accessories. Personally I see no need for the 130A unless you are packing enough stereo to fill your trunk.
I managed to get the 3g for almost nothing, needing a bearing. $20 bearing later, it worked out well. The 2g isn't even an option for me. I made a lot of money rebuilding those when they were still on new cars and they consistently fried the rectifier due to thermal breakdown. I even swapped the 2g in my EXP for a 95 amp 3g 90°offset mount to eliminate that issue back in the mid 90's. With all of the alternator options now available, it's just logical, unless you just want he OEM type or don't really need it.
Thanks! That's a good information! I'm going to change my battery wires because I thought that my alt was not charging my battery... when the car gets the correct temp (190 F?) and turn it off and try to starts again it sounds like a "heavy?" engine but I saw the warm and weak wires now I'll change to big wires!
