guitarman376

Recently I finished doing an electrical system upgrade with a 3G alternator, headlight relays, and electric Ford Contour cooling fans.

I am using the 130 amp 3G with the same ear spacing as the factory '69 alternator. I used the factory 351w alternator mounts but had to create an intermediate bracket. The intermediate bracket is literally a piece of 3/8" thick flat stock with 2 holes spaced 2 3/4" apart. I did stack a few washers to align the alternator pulley. Actually the only reason for even making the intermediate bracket is because the 3G alternator body interfered with the cylinder head mount, so I had to space it away further than the factory bracket slot allows. I trimmed the charge wire that was attached to the alternator when I junkyarded it, it's a 4ga. I followed the schematic for wiring the alternator that has been published online forever.

I added a GM style mega fuse box with 3 fuses in the location that the factory voltage regulator used to be in. One 130A fuse for the alternator charge wire, one 40 amp fuse for the aftermarket interior fuse box I added in, and one 60A fuse for the electric fan setup. You will also see a separate 40A ATC fuse/holder for the headlight relays. I know that it's not particularly good looking, but I'm happy that I was able to mount all the new fuses and relays and only drilled one hole that wasn't in the car already. If I could find a fuse holder that held 4 mega fuses I would have used one but couldn't find one. I used Hella 40A relays for the headlights one for HI and one for LO beam. I ran all 12ga wiring to/from the relays to the lamp sockets.

I ran an 8ga lead from the 60A mega fuse to the circuit breaker that was included with the Derale #16795 fan controller. It is a variable speed controller that can handle up to 65 amps and is temperature adjustable. I didn't need a circuit breaker after a fuse obviously, but added it anyway for a useful junction/added protection. On the fan shroud I also added one 40A Hella relay for the low speed and a Bosch 70A relay for the high speed. I wanted to be worry free about the possibility of the fan controller ever burning out. I utilized the built in resistor from the fans for the low speed. The fan setup was a few inches wider than my 5+yr old Champion radiator, so I made steel adapter plates to take up the air gaps left on the sides. The height however was perfect and the shroud was able to lay flat after a little casting plastic was trimmed.

I am really happy with how it's working so far. The beauty of a variable speed controller is that it modulates the fan speed based on actual water temperature and doesn't spin the fans to 100% speed unless needed. When driving the car I can't tell they're on until the engine is shut off and they stay on for about 15 seconds. The engine temperature hasn't fluctuated at all once at operating temperature.

Worth1

Looks good, overkill is a good thing. Are you going LED for the headlites? My wifes new Jeep spoiled me, I have to have them now.

guitarman376

I am going to try using the cheap h4 conversions I bought through Summit (Maxtel brand) which I can tell are already a lot brighter than the old sealed beams were. Those are for the outers. For the inners, I will most likely be buying Cibie's but my mind is still not fully made up. LED setups that look decent are too much money for me to justify, and I have a lot of things to work on (aka spend money on) before something like LEDs would appeal to me.