3G Finally In

And a GIGANTIC improvement over the stock'ish setup. Used to hit 13.9V max on the highway, now I can have all the lights on and the heater blowing full tilt at warm idle without dipping below 12.5V. I opted this time around (2nd 3G install, first on diesel) for a 180A breaker that is a lot easier to mount and cleaner looking. Now if my drill would hold enough charge to get the mounting holes drilled for it

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I still need to get some new wire loom and I totally forgot that I didn't have a stator harness. I have one on the way, but improvised temporarily with a standard female blade terminal. It's on nice and tight, but will get the proper harness as soon as it arrives.

Now you have more amps at idle than you ever did at high rpms.Little things like lights,amplified radios and blower motors don't mean nothing to a 3G.All these trucks should get the swap imo.Looks good.

Thanks! It's a lot cleaner and less exposed than the 3G swap I did on Bruiser. I did get 2 of those 180A breakers just because of that. The 3G I did on Bruiser definitely doesn't keep up with as much as this one is showing me. That might just be because it's on a gasser and the battery cables are rotting.

You should see about 14.6 volts on ALL alternators or they are junk.

crash-harris said:

Thanks! It's a lot cleaner and less exposed than the 3G swap I did on Bruiser. I did get 2 of those 180A breakers just because of that. The 3G I did on Bruiser definitely doesn't keep up with as much as this one is showing me. That might just be because it's on a gasser and the battery cables are rotting.

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Good toss one in a box for me lol where'd you get the breaker? I've had an alternator sitting here waiting to go in but I'm waiting to get to the scrapyard and get a plug with the stator plug attached. Funny how the Taurus pigtail has the stator plug with it but not when you buy it at a parts store...

I got the 180A breaker cheap from ebay. The stator plug is also coming from an ebay seller. The alternator and harness are Duralast.

I have stator plugs in stock.
That said, the aftermarket plug does not fit good on the terminal, make sure the connector does not push up in the shell as you clip it on, My charging issues were cured by pushing the term down with a probe.

That's good to know. My last one (on Bruiser) I grabbed with the junkyard alternator. Alternator didn't last...and I made the mistake of buying a new one from O'freggin'really's. No warrenty info past 7 years...

I've noticed something that I never had happen with the 3G I installed in Bruiser years ago (Bruiser = gas/single battery).

The 2 times this has occurred it has been once with no accessory on other than the radio and once with the the radio, headlights, aux driving and fog lights on.

I noticed the factory voltage dummy gauge bouncing, looked at my digital one and the alt was charging at 14.7-14.8V then would settle back down to 14.3-14.5'ish and the factory dummy gauge would stop bouncing. When all the accessories were on I noticed it because it seemed like my headlights were flickering a bit (flickering brighter, not dimmer). This never happened on the gas truck, but the gasser has the yellow wire on the charging stud and I put the yellow wire on the battery terminal when I did this swap on the Enterprise. Is this normal, like the signal was sent to charge the batteries for a minute?

Obviously the diesel doesn't need as much electric power to run, so less load on the alternator at all times.

That's funny,

I did mine and ran the voltage sense wire to the starter solenoid. I noticed when I get in the truck the voltage bounces a couple times before settling. I wouldn't have noticed, but it's still dark when I leave for work and the dome light was flickering.

My chinese external voitage regulator took a dump this morning driving to work. My old system works fine when the chinese junk parts are working correctly.

Pretty site or is just when is charging the batteries now.

Also verified that my shower heads need replaced. Got to the bottom of a big hill with just 1/4 tank left and had to coast to a vacant driveway. Duralift pump priming circuit saved me again. Got started and managed to male it to the local overpriced diesel pump and the needle was bouncing all the way to Sam's Club after the extra cranking. Digital gauge peaked at 15.0V and 15.1V occasionally. Battery light would pop on and off with the increase in voltage.

The regulator may be the computer controlled one and it does this.

I got one for an E350 like what's in the tech article.

I know the computer controlled "6G" won't work on anything at all without a newer brain box.

It got worse last night. Bounced erratically on the 80 or so mile trip home from practice last night, almost the whole way with headlights and dash lights flickering. It would stop occasionally and charge normally. I'm going to check for loose connections and attempt to look for belt slip at cruising RPM today.

Could it just be another grounding issue? I've heard that the headlight switch has something in it that allows the lights to flicker without blowing the fuse (so you don't lose lights on the highway at night) to inform you that something isn't right.

Both batteries are grounded to the frame, passenger side ground cable on the front of the engine is also grounded to the same spot on the frame as the passenger battery (bolt missing for drivers side of block, but I ran a cable from the passenger side to the driver's side frame where that battery is grounded as well). 8ga cable grounding from the wiper motor to the intake, braided strap on the bottom of the core support to frame. I think all the factory frame clamp straps are gone, so does it sound like I need another ground from the cab to the frame?

Also got a video during the day earlier this week of what it was doing before it got worse last night. The video is at idle when I got to work, but last night the voltage stabilized when we pulled in the driveway (idle, high beams/driving lights/fog lights all on). I'll post the video once it uploads.