One wire alternator

[Greenbay stang 10]

I was setting up my one-wire 100 amp alternator today, which is hopefully my last piece of the puzzle. I hooked up my volt meter to that back of the alternator and nothing (I did rev it up to kick it in). So I am looking for a new one-wire alternator. Which cars do I us for a donor? When I go the local parts store can I use a early 80's mustang? I need it to be 100 amp and v-belt style.

[Greenbay stang 10]

I guess what I am looking for is; for those of you with one wire alternators, are you you using stock GM alternators or the special ones that you can buy or is there a ford alternator that is one wire?

[Cruzzar 22]

Greenbay, did you have the 10ga. main power wire wire attached from the alternator to the 12v post from the battery? The alternator is self excieting but I believe that it still needs some juice to get it going. I had one on a previous street rod.

[Angel 24]

i bought one from summit a few years ago. 120 bucks. 100 amp. its a gm with a ford casing essentially. fired right up.14v. i bypassed my external regulator and since my battery is in my trunk, i ran a wire from the alternator to the power wire on the starter solenoid. i did have to remove the 4 bolts on the case and rotate the front half so the alternator would fit without the power lead touching the head. ford did make a 94 amp(i think) for an 80's mustang. but i think its almost the same as buying the one from summit. plus the summit one comes in polished or chrome.

Edited November 9, 2009 by Angel

[S code 69 13]

I don't need anywhere near 100 amps but I just converted my stock alternator to one wire. for about $35 you can get the one wire regulator and stick it on any ford one and eliminate the original cheeze ball system.

[Greenbay stang 10]

That is a good idea Cruzzar. I did not have power hooked up to it. I will give it a try this weekend.

[Greenbay stang 10]

I got back to my alternator today. As it looks to me it is the old style alternator with just the extra windings to make it to 100 amp. So I guess my only options are to either get a one wire alternator, or get the wire harness and a 100 amp external regulator. My question is who makes a 100 amp regulator? Do I have any other options?

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Yes a Ford 3G alternator off a 94-95 5.0 mustang. One of these http://www.paperformance.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=75, and one of these http://www.paperformance.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=20.

Here's an article on the install: http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/vintage-mustang-forum/596668-3g-alternator-upgrade-request.html

Remember that these alternators are easily available at most auto parts stores if you have a problem when your out on the road. I wouldn't want to try and find a Powermaster or some other 1 wire alternator if I needed it now. Plus they tend to have charging problems as they take a higher RPM to produce a charging voltage, its said alot of them don't charge at idle RPM's.

[danno 128]

I thought about adding my 2 cents. You had a question about alternator output voltage being zero. An alternator, spinning by itself and not hooked up to anything, will never produce any voltage. A generator will, but they have not been in cars for a long time. Alternators require an excitation voltage, and they can get this from a battery, even if it at 6 volts. So you must have an alternator hooked up to a battery for it to work.

I have the old system in my car, with a 60 amp unit and seperate regulator. It has worked flawlessly for a very long time. Unless you have done something to the car to require a larger alternator, the need for it might not be there. Brighter headlights, solid state ignition, and stereo amplifiers do not put that much more load on the alternator to justify the 100 amp units. I have them all in my car, including power windows, and I have no problems. So there is my $.02.