If you have a powerful sound system in the car and a factory 65 amp alt...It will not keep up with electrical demand...You will eventually kill it and the regulator. My suggestion is this. Determine what the problem is, then... Upgrade to a high output alternator to keep up with your electrical needs. The 3G alt upgrade is a good way to go... Good luck!!!
Uh oh, just called and figured out the alternator I put in was only a 42-amp :16suspect The amplifier I have for my sub is only a 100- or 150-watt and I dont bump the stereo much, would a 65-amp alternator do it? Or do you really think I should go for a bigger one? Im an unemployed 19-year old so money is a bit limited. Thanks for your help!
I would go with a 3G alt...You can probably get a good one out of an older 90's vintage taurus with a 3.8 liter V-6 in the local junk yard, then do a search on the forum here regarding the 3G alternator swap...Do the search first actually, then you will have the info you need to do the swap and what to get from the donor car. Good luck!!! You still need to determine what the problem actually is though before you do anything.
when i was running the original accessory drives, i had a 3g convered and installed, it worked great. i picked up a 250 amp off of ebay for $100. i went to an explorer accessory drive and that has the 4g setup so back to stockish , remember if you go efi you will need to upgrade to a 3g or 4g. stock altinators dont' have enough juice at idle for efi to run correctly.
Where'd you hear that??? The EFI, electric fuel pump and ignition together don't pull more than 8A.. Few of the 80s cars had more than a 75A alt and most of that was to run a rear defroster, electric cooling fan(sometimes x2), etc... The big sound systems are what really tax a charging system...
Here's an update! Turns out my battery failed load tests so I replaced that (on warranty! ). I also upgraded my 42A alternator to a 65A one that had to be ordered from a warehouse, (Knecht's ordered it for me, it's a NW parts store chain) for like $60, and also got a new solid-state regulator for like $15. Sadly the regulator didn't have a nice Ford blue cover like my old one, and I couldn't even change it, but oh well. The good news is that I did all the battery and charging tests, and everything looks great. The battery is being charged correctly at all times (while any combination of normal draws are switched on), and my sound system works great now. As an added plus, my turn signals now work perfectly (they blinked and clicked very slowly before) so I conclude it must've been a bad regulator all along (and the bad battery, too). Hopefully this thread helps others with my same problem in the future, thanks everybody for all the help and suggestions!
