Upgraded my alternator

[chuckmynatt]

Well I had to do it. Here in Vegas I spend a considerable amount of my driving time "cruising" the Strip. As a result a lot of time is spent idling in traffic. I noticed that during an outing my battery voltage would slowly drop until it was below 12V and the engine temp would slowly climb towards 210 degrees.
I have a 62 amp alternator. Doing the math, 2 fans fused at 30A each, MSD, lights etc, I'm pushing the alternator especially at idle (1000 rpm).
So I broke down and bought a Powermaster chrome 100A single wire. It was a direct swap. Comes with both v-belt and serpentine bullys (I need the serpentine). The only minor pain was that I needed to upgrade the power wire from the alternator to the solenoid. The instructions called for a 10 AWG but what the heck, I installed a 6AWG. Had to buy a battery cable with a lead battery terminal on one end and a lug that happens to fit the starter solenoid terminal on the other. Stripping the old wire out of the conduit was a little time consuming. Routed the new cable starting at the solenoid and cut off the battery terminal on the alternator end. Cut the cable to lenth and soldered on a new lug to fit the alternator and replaced the conduit with some larger diameter stuff because the old conduit was too small to accomadate the larger cable.
I took it down the strip Friday night and with everything on my battery voltage never dropped below 13V and coolant temp never went above 200 degrees. It was hot out too.
Money well spent. I'm happy

Chuck