Two alternators

[dangerranger83]

The 87 does have the regulator on it and wires that i cut long so that I could use it one day. I know that the white/black wire isnt used so its not even on my current one under my hood. Since the 87 one has the built in regulator, I could simply hook it before the solenoid and be good, but I have no clue what is being said when you say "run a jumper from a switched positive".

 

[dangerranger83]

Heres a picture of the 87 alternator, only one that i have at the moment, you can kinda see the wires that it has. My plan is to go get a JY alternator and take its pulley off so that I can use it on this one and have a backup one for if my current one does go out, unless I can somehow find a pulley for one on the web for sale somewhere. Anybody know what years ford pulleys will work on this, years that interchange, etc...??? that would really help me out a ton.

 

[gwaii]

the pulley from any ford alternator from the '60s on up will work.

if you're getting an alternator from the wreckers get another internally regulated one with the v-belt pulley and get the harness with it.2.9l rangers had this on them.
then,pull your old alternator off,and use the pulley from that on the one pictured.

use the two internal units on the truck,keep the old external unit as a spare.

by the jumper,all i'm saying is that the green/red wire on the alt need a power feed when the ignition is on.tap into the positive side of the coil and hook this to the feed wire on the alt to switch it on.
that,or you can run a wire from the red/green wire off the ignition switch to the green/red wire on each alternator to switch it on.

if you want to get real fancy,you can run each of these circuits through a light with a resistor to give a charge light to the system for each alternator.

if you don't use the light,it's a good idea to run a 1 amp fuse on this wire.

 

[dangerranger83]

Okay buying the pulley would be cheaper so lets say I didnt want to use a JY one and decided to use just what I have, just hook it up like a normal alternator and call it good? One thing I thought about was running voltage meters to eash one so I can see there outputs and if one did go out then I would know.

Like I said, doing this the cheapest but still keeping it safe way and working with what I have.

 

[shane96ranger]

If that bracket is the same as the Mustang, you could get a 130 amp out of an SN95 Mustang. They look the same to me. The only thing you would have to do is put a different bolt with a nut for the small collar on the alternator. The SN95's are not threaded in that hole. I've got one on my 89GT, and I got it for 27 dollars.

 

[dangerranger83]

Okay heres how thing can change up a bit. My buddy gave me an alternator out of his 95 he use to have and Im told its a 95amp one. now what makes this easier to mount to where the A/C unit would be is that the 87 has an external fan and this doesnt plus it is a fixed alternator. The fan on the 87 kinda gets in the way of the powersteering bracket but the 95 doesnt.

And you can see here, the three wire plugs are the same on the two of them, the letters match up and all.

I had a set of AC brackets laying around somewhere so I will have to see if I can intergrate them into the equassion or not. If it came down to it, I can try to run the second one where the smog pump use to be.

 

[doorgunner]

Go-pher it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dangerranger83]

After looking at it for a few more minutes I found out it can mount to the power steering bracket like this and be just fine. This is with the top mount up all the way (worse case senario) and the hood still closes completely and doesnt hit plus the holes arent lined up due to I have a wiring harness held in place by a zip tie that runs through the back mounting hole that is thread on the bracket. All I would have to do is make a second bracket for the top mount and it would work fine. Ill get more pics of this when I get a chance but looks like I may have found an easy way to do this to a 2.8 if all goes well (and maybe others to that share this kind of mounting setup).

The air cleaner tube will have to modded so that it doesnt get in the way and the power steering dipstick can still be taken out.

 

[naford]

If the headlights are dimming at idle I would think you either have a weak battery or an alt. that is going bad. Probably an alt that is bad have it benchtested for output.

 

[dangerranger83]

Battery is far from weak. Only two years old and I can keep my lights on for a few hours with the truck on and go out and start her right up.

Thats why Im doing this mod. so that if one does go out, I have a backup still going for me plus divide the elctrical loads of the truck between two of them.

 

[gwaii]

looks like you're getting things figured out.


keep up the good work

 

[adsm08]

"run a jumper from a switched positive".

That means to give it key-on power. Like power windows or the radio would have.

 

[dangerranger83]

Well it wont work in that spot but found another and it will do better there, aka, bolt it up to the other alternator bracket. My only thing is being able to tighten the belt (should have taken a picture of it all). And since the alternators pulleys are almost in line with eachother, I may run a larger pulley on one so that it will have more surface for the belt to touch (no to big) but enough both can turn. Its going to take some playing around but will get this figured out along with pics so that I can still get advice from all of you.

Now another question. Found pulleys at my local farm store that are cast metal and was wondering if they would be good for running on my alternator? They have the correct center diameter but have a screw that tightens them down though that may no be need since the alternator has one (but keep it there to balance it out). If so I may run the 87 one due to it has a 61 amp output on it for now vs the 40 amp one it has now. And since it has the built in regulator on it, Ill just hook it right before the soleniod (just like the setup I have now) and I, in therory, should be good.

One way or another, I will have 2 under the hood of this truck, Im wanting to put more electrical things on this truck, such as a winch, and will need to do what I can, as cheap as I can.