130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

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130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

July 11, 2012, 10:09:17 PM

This isn't a can you help me install this get this in to my car. This is a This is how I did this type of thread. This is my cheap ass low buck have no money into it 130amp 3G alt upgrade. There maybe other ways to do this there might be ways that others would do it but this it how I did it!

Here is a pic of the all the tools I used for this

I'll list them out.
5/8" or(16mm), 10mm, 8mm or(5/16") sockets along with ratchet/s
13mm or(1/2"), 14mm, 15mm wrenches
wire cutters, flat blade screw driver (to help remove alt plugs)
3g alt of your choice. with the small plug or buy one or make one use a small speaker type connector.
Tape or heat shrink tubing, Large gauge 4Ga or larger along with a suitable fuse holder and fuse.

So on with the show. I got a free to me 3g style Alt that came off a 93 Ford Taurus with a 3.8L motor. This this the bigger case straight across mounting style 3G alt.

Those are as I received it pics. I did clean it up before I started installation. I popped the hood on my bird to see just what I had to work with.

I noticed right off that my 87 bird has the 90* style mounting tabs

and that my battery has worked its self into the original alt external fan so it now has a hole in it. Yippy. Good thing I have a replacement sealed gel unit I had laying around. This is a very small compact battery. Fits nice and snug in the battery tray just not long enough to fill it front to back(engine compartment wise)(pic of battery just below) So I removed the battery and the original alt from the car. Now this is not my first 3G upgrade into some form of older Ford. So hope this clears up just how easy this is in just about any older ford with the 2G style alt. I took the New plugs that came with the 3g alt and compare them to the plugs that are on the car.
Car side (right on top of that small battery I was talking about)

Plugs from 3g style Alt

I know the pics are small (photobucket resized them for me )but if you look close you can see that both D shaped plugs have the same color wires coming out of it. Green with a red stripe, White with a black stripe, and Yellow with a white stripe. On the factory plug from the car the Center wire coming out of the D shaped plug which is White with blk stripe runs from the D plug into the large flat other plug from the 2G style alt we need to cut that.

Then we need to cut the same wire on the 3G harness and wire the small plug with the White blk stripe wire to the wire coming from the car should look like this now.

Now we have to deal with what is left with the big flat plug with still 2 Black with orange striped wires coming from it.

Well trace the two big black/org wires back and I found they went into a single bigger blk/org wire then even further where it also met up with the Yellow/white striped wire coming from the D shaped plug. So what to do is Cut the big single blk/org where it meets up with the Yellow black wire coming from the D shaped plug. Now we just want to cut the one single wire at this location. Like I do in this pic

Now what that does is get rid of that big flat plug with the two big blk/org wires that the small wht/blk wire we cut earlier used to go to. So you should have left overs that look like this. Make sure you cover the open wire where you cut with tape/heat shrink tube.

This is where You would need some Large(low number gauge) wire. Which would run from the Big wire lug on the back of the 3G style alt over to the solenoid/battery. The battery lug is the one the one just to the right and lower of the D shaped plug and small plug in this pic

Now with my low buck nothing invested I just found me some old stereo 4ga I had laying around along with some Squish/crimp on ends and made me a power wire. I do advise you get a large fuse holder and install a fuse in this New main charge line that we are installing from the 3G alt to the battery/Solenoid. That place that we cut the Big blk/org wire where it met the yel/wht wire is at the end of a fuse able link. So some sort of fuse protection MUST be in there. I have a fuse holder just needing to get a Fuse large enough for this alt.
So now that the wiring is done I installed the 3G alt into the older 2G location. Here is what that looks like.

Now I know it is not recommended to run down the road like that but I ran out of time with how HOT is was getting outside so I just buttoned her up to give her a test to make sure the new alt was charging and that my dash lights agreed with everything we did. Everything turned out great 14.7 at batt with headlights on bright and A/c on Max fan on high all while idling in the drive way. I LIKE IT! I LIKE IT A LOT. So my plan for tomorrow is to take a piece of angle Iron I have laying around and make cut/hack/grind me a bracket to attach the top 3g alt Tab to the old 2G Tab bolt down location. I will get many pics and post them up also just in case you find your self in the same situation. Now if you just get the 3G style alt with the 90* mounting tabs it should just bolt right in. I think those can be found on 90's tempo's and some taurus's along with porb many other apps. If money isn't a problem just go to part store have them open book and find one that is the 3G style with the right mounting tabs. Or head to a auto parts web site and keep look up diff app until you find the right style for your needs. 3rd gen style is most early 90's to 00's fords or real close to that year range

More upates soon

Thanks for looking
Stuckman

130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

Reply #1 – July 14, 2012, 01:06:03 PM

Nice little write up! It's amazing how much different these cars will run with proper voltage. I'm curious to see what you'll do for an upper mounting bracket. I just did one for a customer on a '90 T-bird 3.8...after I did my first 3g swap years ago, I decided I'd never replace a 2g with another 2g...everything I've had since has been 3g swapped!

Enjoy the extra voltage!

-Don

130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

Reply #2 – July 18, 2012, 07:46:02 PM

hell even the 1G to 3G swaps are simple. If you look at regulator on the 3g it has the same I.S.A as on the external regulator. Not sure about you but matching letter wire to matching letter wire is simple. Haven't got my bracket fully done. but so far got it cut out and just about ready thinking need to weld it together and slap it in there maybe some finsih work so it don't look like my hillbilly ass made it! LOL

Thanks just trying to help others with the things I'm doing
Stuckman

130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

Reply #3 – July 21, 2012, 11:28:33 PM

Well I got back on my bracket today for this 3G upgrade. I started out with some poster board/old food box. I had thought previously that I could make a one piece bracket but I wasn't using my head so I had to make a two piece unit so things would line up to bolt in. Here are a some pics of how I got things going.

I cut out the poster board and made my design.

Grabbed a piece of 1/4" plate I had in shop.

Cut out the basic shape of my design.

Put my pattern on my rough cut parts so I could re-trace design outline so I could shape the pieces to fit and look some what factory.

Kinda missed a few pic in my working but they are simple ones. In this pic you can see how I used vice grips to hold the pieces in the correct position. I then drilled two holes and used two aluminum rivets to further keep everything lined up nice and tight. While still using the vice grips to help and hold the part while drilling and finish grinding.

Still not completely finished with this but those are the so far pics. As you can see it is bolted in. So far just the rivets are holding the two pieces together. Welding together in next couple of days. Then the nut on the front side of the bracket at the alt ,and the one on the rear side of the bracket I made where it bolts on the car. Those both will be welded on. Then I will grind and finish the welds and give it nice coating of black paint. I will get pics of the in between and finished unit. What do you guys think so far? Was thinking about cutting and bending a support piece for the back side of the bracket for added strength? Hope this helps and maybe even motives others.

Thanks for looking
Stuckman

130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

Reply #4 – July 22, 2012, 02:14:48 PM

With 1/4" plate, I think you'll have all the support you'll need! That stuff is serious...I like the idea of welding in the nuts to the bracket, if you hadn't mentioned it, I would've suggested it! lol It's the little details that can make a custom piece look real nice...even if others don't notice, you'll still know you spent the time to make it nice. I agree on the 1g to 3g upgrade as well...first mod I did on my '85 CV coupe...a year and a half ago and I still haven't pulled the external voltage regulator off the fender yet.

I don't know if you've ever used it, but Rustoleum high heat engine paint covers real thick and can hide a lot of sins...I think Vato Zone carries it...the dupli-color is good too, but it doesn't seem to coat as thick as the rustoleum stuff.

Good luck,
Don

130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

Reply #5 – July 22, 2012, 04:36:59 PM

Looks good, the only thing is 9/16=14mm 5/8=16mm. The brackets really made it "come together".

130Amp 3G alternator into 87 3.8L How you do it! Bracket with pics.

Reply #6 – August 03, 2012, 09:11:49 PM

The 91-93 5.0 T-birds have factory 95A 3G alternators with the same mounts as our cars. If you want 130A, you've got to do it your way (or buy a PA Performance 150A [A bit more than free]).