03wr250f
Full Access Member
I swapped my truck over to a 3g alternator a while back. I followed many of the articles i have seen here and a couple other sights over the interwebs. the alternator itself works great. I ended up pulling a couple of alts from the jy when i began. I found one had recently been remanufactured. It had the most life left in it looking at the wear items. I then built my own if you will combining the casing of one alt i had prepped and painted and then installed the alternator winding and such in the case. I then ran a 2 ga wire (copper ring terminals on the ends)from the alt to the fenderwell where i installed a 200 amp scoche re-settable breaker. I then ran a cable from the breaker to the battery. I have been happy with it, but every once in a while it will blow the breaker, with no rhyme or reason. I then have found I need to shut the truck off and it also tends to like to sit for a while, then usually as long as I dont add a lot of draws to the system shortly after startup it does fine. When it pops the breaker it doesn't like to be revved at all right after startup, doesnt like the blower motor either, or else it will pop it. If i give it time to sit at idle and charge and add loads slowly one at a time its fine, but its kind of ridiculous. It also densest always do it. It went 6 months in between doing it. I went on a 1500 mile trip from Spokane to Missoula to glacier and back again and it did not act up. but then it acted up on a 3 mile drive. I havent found a root cause or even an explanation. Anyone have any thoughts? I have replaced the breaker with another scoche 200 amp breaker. Is it not big enough? Voltage regulator in the alt going bad? I take it to oreillys and everything tests great according to their machine. I originally replaced the factory alt because my voltage gauge was reading a little low for my likings. It wasnt until i was committed that I figured out it wasnt reading as accurately as it used to and that it was charging fine and the gauge was slightly off. I just figured oh well, why not upgrade since I already had all the parts and was halfway done. I know most people love their 3g. Mine has been nothing but a pain!!! I want to get it working properly. I also got today a couple of for 175a breakers from 3.0 tauruses as another way to test things, because if thats what they use maybe there was a reason ford didnt use a breaker. I only found one 3.8 v6 and it was in a windstar. the "fuse" on it was simply a very factory looking piece of metal bridging the gap where a fuse should have been. Is that how the 3.8s were wired was no fuse?
Any help is very appreciated!
Any help is very appreciated!