pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

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pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

June 01, 2005, 11:28:02 PM

ok, a while ago before i started my suspension upgrade i got a 3g 130 amp alt from pa proformance with the premium wire kit. i hooked it up, milled the alt bracket to fit and i thought it worked fine for about a day, then i had some kinda wierd radio problem and the car wouldnt start cauz the battery would die. i'd charge the battery run the car and if the radio problem happened again, the car would not start their after....

now i figured out that the radio thing was brought on by low voltage i think, or a spike that killed or lessened the battery enough for it to just bairly crank and not start. i got my alt tested today and the guy said its makeing 17volts, the norm is apairently 11-15.

what could the dammage be? did the alt cook a fuse, or what? i mean, i could charge the battery and drive my car home, only about 2 miles. but the alt wasnt charging while in the car the way we tested it. and now i had it tested at pepboys and its putting out 17 volts... im confused

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #1 – June 01, 2005, 11:29:55 PM

forgot to mension, i need to fix this before cat jam... and i got a new ign switch today if it makes a difference

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #2 – June 02, 2005, 07:25:47 AM

Clean your terminals!!! I had apparently had 'dirty' terminals that gave me charging fits!!! I couldn't figure it out. The car just wouldn't start sometimes. Check the voltage on the post then on the battery cable connection... I had like a 5 volt difference between them.

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #3 – June 02, 2005, 08:22:52 AM

If your still thinking alternator problem Nate bring your car over next weekend and we'll put the 3g in my car.. I have a PA-perm 3G also.. so in just 5 min we'll know if its good.

It's up to you.. let me know..

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #4 – June 02, 2005, 06:49:15 PM

i always keep the terminals clean, i'v gone down that road before lol. the guys at pa performance said the regulator is shot, and they'll send me another after i ship mine out friday.

bob, what did you do with the plug i circled in red? i converted the plug they gave me, and they gave me a pig tail for that to, but i have nothing to connect it to because im useing a tbird harness. apairently mustangs have something their?

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #5 – June 02, 2005, 07:21:06 PM

That plug goes to the stator. Without it, the alternator won't regulate voltage correctly...
Connect it to solve your problem, your VR is fine.

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #6 – June 02, 2005, 07:29:04 PM

Like Jeremy said. It's the "sense" circuit - kind of a feedback to the regulator to let it know what the voltage situation is.

Take the white wire with the black stripe coming from your regulator plug and connect it to that terminal. The wire should go from the terminal to the regulator plug. Here'z a diagram I did up for another thread that shows how the 3G should be wired:

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #7 – June 03, 2005, 07:31:04 AM

Yeah you need something plugged into there, mine comes right out of the harness

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #8 – August 06, 2005, 04:49:59 PM

hears what i got so far.

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #9 – August 26, 2005, 12:09:54 PM

sorry for the " thread jacking "

but couldn't you get a rheostat, and wire it in to the " sense " wire, and regulate the voltage, ?

incase you wanted to run your car at idle for a while, and listen to your radio, and what nots? PS, thanks for the " HOW TO " swap on the G3 stuff, i really needed to know all this.. my old alternator just isn't enough juice !!

Re: pa 3g 130amp alt stoped working

Reply #10 – August 26, 2005, 09:04:44 PM

You probably could, but why? The alternator is internally regulated, and it would likely do a better job of deciding how much juice to put out than you could with a rheostat. besides, if your stereo is powerful enough that you think you have to artificially bump up the charging voltage, tricking the sense circuit at idle wouldn't cut the mustard. If the alt can't keep up it's because the stereo is drawing more than the alt can produce at idle, not because the regulator isn't opening it up enough. If the voltage is low enough to tell the regulator to charge wide open it can still only charge as well as the alternator can provide current. In this case about the only thing you can do is install a smaller alt pulley, which will overdrive (speed up) the alternator.