I had the same alt you have the only thing i would suggest is to watch terminal on the back of the alt. on mine it was very close to the engine block and eventually hit the block causing a short and some major electrical problems.

 

interesting, I wonder if you could fabricate something to protect it from doing that..... i am going to eventually switch to a one wire when I do the rebuild so maybe at that time I'll have to think something up.

 

yup you would have to find the coefficient of resistivity of the wire and multiply it be the length to get your answer and that is a pita

 

[sm=dontgetit.gif] speak english!

 

Yeah those pesky Ford designers already took care of that for you. You can remove the red boot from your old alt wiring harness and re-use it when you install the new one, it will slip right over that red plastic ring and keep you from shorting out. If you chose to up the gauge, just open up the hole in it more.

Old alt.

 

ahhh, crazy ford engineers. maybe they should be in charge of the ford legal dept.

 

So what is the benefit of a one-wire over a 3-wire alternator? Just conveinence when you have to unhook it and hook it back up?

 

i bought the chrome extensions that hold the alternator...its not close to my engine block

 

THe one wires they're talking about are internally regulated so they have no need for the external regulator of the orig. three wire deals. Also you can usually find one wire alts. in hirgher amperage incase your running a high powered stereo or somethin like that.

 

6 gauge would be a minimum for the short distance between the alt and battery in a Mustang. I would run 4 gauge, however (20% over-sized). My '65 F250 has a rear mounted battery and -2 wire along the frame (more than necessary, I've been in aerospace to long).

I size based on the maximum current that can be applied through the wire. It isn't likely the alt wire will see 100 amps, but it is possible. I have heated up my wire and tripped the breaker (don't let an Optima get too low on charge, btw...and, it had no problem turning the starter), which would have meant a lot of work with a 10 gauge wire in that place.