I figure this won't be of use to many people, but as long as it might be of use to one or two people I might as well post it. Probably give more people a chuckle at my screw-up than it helps.. but oh well. :p
Ordered a new PA Performance alternator for the '89 Mark. Since money was tight and the 130A (http://"http://www.pa-performance.com/display.asp?sku=148") version in the Mark VII section was just outside of my budget, I went into the '86-93 'Stang section and got the 95A (http://"http://www.pa-performance.com/display.asp?sku=3") alt with a 1G hookup (the Mark has an external regulator for that funky huge-case 100A factory monster) and a standard long wire kit. (4ga. wire, in-line fuse) Wanted something I could just toss in there without having to mess around with the wiring too much. Ordered that yesterday right around noon.
Well today it was mid-afternoon and I hadn't heard anything on a tracking number.. and I ordered it 2-day air so it would be here by Friday. Needed to have the car operational by the weekend, including putting a new battery and cables and belt in along with the alt. Emailed them asking about it, they said it would be shipped today. While I had a dialog open with one of them, I figured I'd ask and double-check that the alt in question would work *without modification*. I was wrong.
Turns out those freakishly large alts the Mark uses only have a 15mm thick upper mounting tab. The guy from PA Perf. called me and asked me what I wanted to do.. scrub the order or not. Decided to go ahead and swipe the alt bracket off the '88 T-bird and use that. According to him, many of their Lincoln customers do just that. Anyway, I received the tracking Email within a couple minutes of his call. Talk about in the nick of time..
So what's the point of this? Well, one of ya might see a Mark VII in a j/y someday, or get a Mark parts car, and think that you can grab that big-ass 100A alt for a cheap upgrade. If you do, keep this thread in mind. Not saying it wouldn't work if someone put a little extra thought into it.. just saying that it's not a no-brainer swap. Hell, I might try to rebuild the Mark's old alt and see if I can rig that up (external reg. and all) in the '88 T-bird at some point.
Guess I'll be hitting up the local junkyards (or the wanted section here) for a Mustang/T-bird/Cougar 5.0 alt bracket when it comes time to get the '88 running.. heh.