F33lmyWrath

After showing signs of failing, my alternator finally bit the dust. A couple months back the 20 amp alternator fuse blew. The battery light appeared on my dash and I did common troubleshooting to identify the problem. Turns out one of my alternator fuses blew. This was in the fuse panel under the hood. I replaced it and didn't think much about it.

I went on my merrily way until yesterday. Again, my battery light turned on and I immediately changed the fuse. Drove home and forgot about it.

Now today, my battery light came on again. I went to change the fuse, and upon inserting the 20 amp mini fuse, she popped instantly. With the truck off and having the alternator fuse blowing, I knew that something internal to the alternator had shorted to ground.

Not too bad for the original motorcraft alternator giving me 233k miles.

Local autoparts store wanted $140 for a reman basic 130amp. I hopped on ebay and bought this 200amp one for less than $100 shipped!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180900947884?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
I called the place to make sure they ship with a 6 groove pulley. I will update this post when I receive her and install the unit.

I decided to go with a higher output, since I do have a small amplifier and subwoofer installed behind the rear seats of my supercrew.

UtahGuy

If I'd gotten 230k out of the factory alternator, I probably would have gotten another one. Good luck with the Fleabay reman.

FallGuy44

I was thinking the same thing but I researched the company (Rotex) and they are located in California with high online reviews and their alternators have a year warranty. They also have an A BBB rating. I'd say it's worth trying out.

Jbrew

That's the way to go, - those 200 amp Fleabay alternators come with another world of problems lol.

The OP doesn't mention which model year, so it's hard telling which alt he had. The very best alts IMO is the factory 3G. 319,000 miles on my original.

ALL 3G's are spec'ed to 130 amps BUT! - not one of them peak at 130. ALL peak at 160 amps. Best ever made IMO.

Ford used these on the 97/98's before they cheaped out. - fortunately you can still get them, well, I guess I should say, the best supplier of these has been MIA for the last 8 months (Ryan @ oldfuelinjection, aka FFI FordFuelInjection with the RJM website). Not sure on the details, but Ford got after him for infringement rights which was BS IMO. This WAS a great site for us for many years. Ryan built and re-built these himself.

Anyway, if you can find a true 3G, that's the way to go.

BTW F33lmyWrath, - a 200amp w/6rib is worthless. You'll never get it with a 6 rib. You have the power, but you'll smoke before ever seeing 200 amps continuous with a 6 rib set up. 8 rib only for that one. You'll find out.

Jbrew

You know, they might not install a 6 rib on it, - knowing that it won't work. Unless they just want to sell you the alt and let you find out the hard way lol. They're more apt to leave the 8 rib on it and give you a 6 rib pulley free as sort of a hint. A better company would explain to you as I sort of did above.

I've seen one guy on another forum that got stuck with a 200 amp after finding this out. He didn't even install the alt before he was enlightened. Well, they wouldn't refund him his money because there was nothing wrong with what he bought. As the return warranty explained. There has to be a mechanical defect vs purchaser defect.

If you have the time, cancel it.

F33lmyWrath

2003 Supercrew with the 5.4L

The OEM alt was a large case 3G

With all the warnings given, I'm still going to roll the dice... that is provided they do ship it to me with a 6 groove pulley. [MENTION=113]Jbrew[/MENTION] you say I'll smoke... do you mean my serpentine belt, or what are you referring to?

Jbrew

Yes the belt. And theres's no way in hell you had a LC 3G on that truck factory...No way.

Learn the hard way, - some people just have tuh. I do understand and that's okay.

It's not a warning it's a fact. You need an 8 rib if you want the belt to hold with that kind of power on demand.

F33lmyWrath

Here is the old alt:

TLB4

Nah, I have 250 amp alternators on both my trucks. And since they use overdrive pulleys, my original belt was too long. Only thing that would fit in my town was an old ruined belt that only had 3 grooves left. Ran that sucker for the better part of all spring, through summer, and into fall. Never had an issue.

F33lmyWrath

Yeah instead of correcting with Jbrew I just let him think the way he wants to. The way he comes off sounds like he doesn't want to learn.

I have a 180amp high output in my infiniti that runs on a 4 groove pulley.