Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods 95 GL alternater upgrade?

I am planing to put a rather large system in my car. Something that will end up darwing >120 amps. Does anyone know who would sell high amp alts? Would anything that fits a Ford work? Are they hard to change your self. I have done it before on a 98 Ranger but that was a pretty stright forward install.

thanks for the help.

GOOD QUESTION, im looking for more juice too !
right now im pushing Soundstream Trantula 1000 watt amp and at night my poor indaglo gauges dim pretty bad ...

i did add a 2nd batter in the truck and that helped a lot , now it pulls most of the power from the trunk battery ...

ttt

Capacitor, that will stop your lights from dimming and won't put such a strain on your electrical system.
There was a group buy here not too long ago on them. Ask around the guy selling them is a regular here.

I would really rather get a new alt. I dont think that a cap well do me much for me. I will be drawing so much curent that it would not be that usefull.

thanks for the idea though.

TRUE,

I wouldnt reccomend high power altenators, fried my HU in my 84 Topaz.
Tried the 2 battery thing, worked for awhile, then it was the same thing. 2 batteries will help as long as you drive around for awhile with your stereo off to charge both batteries, then turn your stereo on. Your altenator is still putting out the same amount of amps, but now it's only sending half to each battery.
If you do this make sure you go with a good brand. I also did this in my Topaz and it drew current either way, so if I unhooked the battery in the front, the car would still turnover becuase of the battery in the back.
And even if you do both, while your systems not on full blast you still run the risk of frying something.
Caps come in different sizes depending on your needs.
1 farad is equal to 1000 watts. they have .5,1,1.5,2 and probably higher, Are you really going to be running more than 2000 watts through your system?
Caps are made just for the purpose of storing energy for your stereo system.
This is my .02 from my past experiences.
If you are looking for something like that high powered altenator try JCWhitney's, they usually carry items like that, thats where I bought the kit for the second battery.

Originally posted by Gouch:

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I would really rather get a new alt. I dont think that a cap well do me much for me. I will be drawing so much curent that it would not be that usefull.

thanks for the idea though.

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Even if you get a high output Alt. you sould still put a cap or 2 in. I believe it is (1)1 farad cap for every 1000W.

Originally posted by bk4293:

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I wouldnt reccomend high power altenators, fried my HU in my 84 Topaz.
Tried the 2 battery thing, worked for awhile, then it was the same thing. 2 batteries will help as long as you drive around for awhile with your stereo off to charge both batteries, then turn your stereo on. Your altenator is still putting out the same amount of amps, but now it's only sending half to each battery.
If you do this make sure you go with a good brand. I also did this in my Topaz and it drew current either way, so if I unhooked the battery in the front, the car would still turnover becuase of the battery in the back.
And even if you do both, while your systems not on full blast you still run the risk of frying something.
Caps come in different sizes depending on your needs.
1 farad is equal to 1000 watts. they have .5,1,1.5,2 and probably higher, Are you really going to be running more than 2000 watts through your system?
Caps are made just for the purpose of storing energy for your stereo system.
This is my .02 from my past experiences.
If you are looking for something like that high powered altenator try JCWhitney's, they usually carry items like that, thats where I bought the kit for the second battery.

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Yeah I will really be running 2000 watts. Closer to 3000 actually. Caps really would not help that much. They disscharge so fast that after a huge bass hit they become useless, if not even a drain. (unless I wanted to go in to the 5+ farad sizes)

Has anyone changed their alt before? Is it hard to do on this car?

thanks for the replys guys