3G page is up - need more info, pics, tips, and suggestions

[87gtVIC]

Hey man where did you get the red and black terminal insulators? I like them!

[I Like FE]

Cable/Battery post covers

The Cable/Battery post covers came in the package with the cables from AutoZone.

[87gtVIC]

Cool. I will have to look into that. Thanks.

it says that right on the packaging.

[sly]

darn that reading stuff

[Ike Clanton]

I JUST got finished with this swap, and it is pretty amazing the difference it made at idle on my TC. I can turn EVERYTHING on and everything stays fully bright. This upgrade should be REQUIRED for all older Panther cars.

My recipe was a '98 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan (pushrod, not DOHC) piece. (The little V shaped bracket that has its own boss on the back of the alternator makes zero difference once installed.) The charge wire is from a '98 or '99 Windstar, which I chose only because it sits up higher and was easier to get at. Unflange it from the Windstar's alternator and remove it around to the driver's fenderwell where it starts really getting buried in the harness and that will be enough; I went a little further and my wire is close to a foot too long. If you are buying wire for this at a parts store and you have a "you pull it" style salvage handy, you are just chucking money away. I am not even sure if they charged me for the wire I got, and I have all of $ 30 in the whole shebang. I myself did have to chuck some money away by not getting a fuse or whatever it is from the Windstar, but I was out of time. I instead used a 175 amp fuse bolted to the battery post of the starter relay as has been done in pictures here at GMN. You will need 1 4 gauge cable lug for the fused end of the cable where you bolt it fo the fuse at the starter relay.

I did have to ream out the bottom mount hole on the 3g a little to make the old bolt fit, and I used a 3/8 bolt for the top mount hole because as others have mentioned, the top hole wasn't threaded like on a 2g.

The 3g pulley and stock Panther belt worked just fine together for me.

For anyone afraid to do this mod, DON'T BE. This is EASY, and even someone virtually clueless about this stuff can get it done in a very lazy early Saturday afternoon by using the resources here.

The real purpose of this post is to say thanks to those who contributed to the writeups on this subject. I probably would have continued to suffer idle brownouts were it not for them.

Thanks!

[87gtVIC]

Good to hear man.

[91waggin]

I absolutely agree that this mod is absolutely necessary for anybody with the shitty 65 amp alternator. However, I used a bigger charge cable than was original equipment on the Windstar or whatever else, just because Ford uses the bare friggin minimum wire they can get away with for anything. You can also get some pretty nifty megafuse holders online.

[sly]

I got my charge cable here. 2 AWG wire and the longest pre-made (longer cable available in "assemble it yourself" mode). they're not quite long enough for a panther though, but anyone can add a battery cable (or other heavy lifter wire) to it and wrap the lock washer'd bolted together joint like I did.

[marquisman]

im just lost on the voltage regulator stuff. everything else is simple. alt install and charge cable.

[sly]

if it's a 1G you're going from, then you can lazy out like I did and spend another $26 +S&H and get that PA Performance adapter that looks like the old regulator box. it's plug and play. 2G to 3G is seriously plug and play. Nothing to convert there except the charge cable.

[86VickyLX]

Take the green/red stripe wire from your original regulator, and put it to the green/red stripe wire on the new internal voltage regulator. Put the orange/blue stripe wire to the charge stud on the alt (it would be better to put it at the battery, since that is the sense wire, but it works either way). The white/black stripe wire goes to the prong on the alternator by itself.

[mcninetyone]

I have a 100amp bracket for anyone doing a big case 3G swap!

If anyone needs it just PM me!