New battery & alternator.

[Virtual Conan]

My alternator recently kicked the bucket and my battery is seven years old so I?m replacing both of them.

For the alternator I went with a rebuilt, 3g, 200 amp, Ford OEM style unit. My car came with a 110 amp unit originally. I never felt this unit was strong enough for the car even though I don?t have any aftermarket stereo or electronics in the car. For example, if you are driving at night with the head lamps on, stereo on, automatic climate control on and maybe a cell phone charging everything is fine; but when you come to a stop light and put the turn signal on and activate the electric brake booster (foot on the brake) the radio gets quiet, head lamps go dim and the idle lightly surges (not enough spark). I?m hoping to fix that with the 200 amp unit.

For the battery I decided to go with a high end unit, the PC1500T from Odyssey. I have always bought cheap batteries and always had problems so this time I?ll see if the extra money is worth the reliability. As the name suggests this battery has 1500 cold cranking amps for five seconds. It?s a sealed, AGM style, maintenance free battery with a five year warranty. I figure if I get five years out of it I?ll be happy. What I really like about this battery is that it can be deep cycled without doing damage to the unit and cold winter starts should be much improved with that level of cranking power.

Finally, I bought an overdrive pulley for the alternator so I?ll get higher output at idle where I?ve been having the issues outlined above. That means slightly less output at cruising RPM but I don?t think it will be a problem. If it is I?ll just use the original pulley. I also bought a new charging cable which is 2 gauge. I think the old cable (6 gauge) might melt with the extra output from the 200 amp alternator, har!

I?m waiting for the parts to come in the mail. I?ll try to toss some pics up when I get to the install. I know for a lot of folks here an alternator and battery install is probably boring but I bet there are some folks who might find it interesting.

 

[cprince]

I'm surprise that your old battery lasted 7 years. Most car batteries last between 3 and 5 years. I had to change mine yesterday after 4 years.

 

[Virtual Conan]

It's the longest I've ever had a car battery last. About every two years it would get to where it wouldn't keep a charge so I would drain it completely (out of the car) and then trickle charge it back to 100%. Then, slowly over time it's capacity would drop again and I'd have to deep cycle it again. This is a Motocraft battery.

 

[LTC8K6]

Overkill, but it's your money.

I would have worked on the wiring and the grounds and used regular replacement parts. I would also have made sure the idle speed was in spec.

 

[Virtual Conan]

Idle speed is in spec in the PCM (800-900 RPM), all grounds have already been checked and rechecked. From what I have been reading this is common for my car.

 

[brblx]

why did you feel you needed a better alternator?

if you're not running some kind of absurd bass rig, the stock one should be fine. i would be willing to bet that beefing up your battery cables and engine to chassis ground (possibly just replacing them with stock parts) would have been more than adequate. did you check the the voltage drop of all the cables (battery to starter, starter to alt, battery to chassis, engine to chassis, usually)? if so, what kind of numbers did you obtain? did you turn things like the high beams and AC on to create a good load?

 

[exdeath]

1) The overdrive pulley is likely to kill your alternator again. No need to speed up the alternator. Over spinning is one of the leading causes of premature alternator failure. It will also void your warranty on your new alternator.

2) Car batteries are not designed to be discharged completely and then charged from 0%. That is why your batteries don't last. If you know it needs to be topped off, just a slow 2A charge for an hour or so, or a battery tender type device is fine.

3) If you get 13+ volts with everything on and current draw does not exceed rated limit of alternator unit while running, then the alternator is fine. If your battery is still slowly discharging over time, you need to get a current clamp on your battery cable and start pulling fuses and find out what is continuing to cause a drain while the car is parked and off. Start with things like after market stereos, alarm systems, cruise controls, remote starts, anything that may have been wired improperly (eg: pulling power from a wire that is live without the ignition switch on).

PS alternator output only puts our what is needed. The regulator controls the field current, and thus output, based on demand, and holds it constant all the way to max RPM once it peaks. Just because it's rated at 200 amps doesn't mean it's going to put out 200 amps and automatically melt anything.

 

[LTC8K6]

The engine only requires a certain amount of current to turn over. A higher CCA battery won't change much if the OEM battery was strong enough.

PC1500T is only ~800CCA, not 1500, so not that impressive. The only advantage you will see from that battery is if your alternator fails, imo.

 

[LTC8K6]

Nope, no advantage with alternator failure, either. RC is 125 minutes, comparable to a regular car battery.

? PHCA: 1,500A at 80°F (27°C);for 5 seconds
? CCA: 825A at 0ºF (-18ºC)
? CA/MCA: 1,050A at 32ºF (0ºC)
? HCA: 1,250A at 80ºF (27ºC)
? Reserve capacity: 125 minutes
? Short circuit current: 3,100A
? 62 Ah @ 10hr rate
? Deep cycling capability: 400 at 80% DOD
? Design life: 12 years
? Typical service life: 6 to 8 years
? Operation temparature range:
-40°F (-40°C) to 176°F (80°C)