Hey guys, my names Matt and im new here. I have a 1988 Mustang LX 5.0L with underdrive pullies, shorty headers, full mac exhaust, cold air intake, ignition, hurst short shifter, etc.

So yesturday coming home, I was watching my meter gauge for the battery, and i noticed it was in the red zone, near "8". Now I kinda noticed it like this for a while, it slowly went from the middle of the gauge to the red zone over the past month, and yesturday was the day it hit the red zone and died out on me on the PARKWAY in the middle of traffic. Luckily, I was in the right lane and was able to roll over to the shoulder and get towed. Now a buddy of mine, who has owned his fair share of mustangs, says its my alternator. Im not sure if the alternator is stock or not, but it definally looks like it is, and the company that made it was "Duralast."

So I took the alternator out just an hour or so ago but the thing is, it doesn't seem or look like anythings wrong. The pully seems to spin freely when I spin it, really good at that. Does this sound like an alternator problem? Is there any way I can test itto see if its fine or not? Thanks guys.

 

Alternators will never have anything visually wrong with them. Sometimes the pully siezes up. It sounds like its not charging. If its a duralast unit, then its not the factory one. Its from Autozone. Take it to autozone and have them put it on their machine. Itll test it.
Your friends right though, its dead. It needs to be replaced.
-P.

 

get rid of those under drive pullies

making the alternator overwork itself since its probably only a 75 amp

 

yup buy a 135amp and use that, you'll need to elongate the hole on the bracket to mount it but you'll never see that... full write up on the 3g alternator upgrade in the Tech Articles.

 

85 stangs came factory with 130 amp alts
-P.

 

are those the SPP?