Hi all. I am working on my parents kit car which has a Ford 2.3L from a 70s pinto. The car has kind of turned into a nightmare, not so much from the pinto stuff, but because whoever put it together was a moron. I have a couple of questions, but first some info. I am attempting to swap the original alternator for a newer "3g" model from a truck. It fits the bottom bracket just fine, but the body is a little too big for the upper bracket. Through a little reasearch, I have found that the 2.3 and variants were put in a lot of vehicles even through 90s. I'm hoping one of the newer models would have an upper bracket that would work, my gut feeling being a 80s model mustang or t-bird, maybe a ranger? If someone knows off hand it would save me a little junkyard time.
I also decided to replace the carburetor because it was not running well, but the throttle cable stud on the new carb is in a different spot. The linkage on the old one was attached vertically to a crappily welded bracket. The new one seems to want the linkage to run horizontally. There doesn't seem to be enough room if that is the case, but I think I can work something out, I just need confirmation that it does attach horizontally and perpendicular to the engine.
Thanks in advance for any insight you guys can offer.
I have used the GM one wire on my race cars. They are dimensionly the same, and easy to wire up. I had to enlarge the bottom hole, (some have a steel sleeve that can come out), and make a couple of spacers for alignment. Was done in less than an hour. I don't know what carb. you have, but I would get as Holley 350 and put in on. Perfect for the 2.3. Or find an Motorcraft 2 barrel off a small Ford v-8 they work well too. They will bolt right on with no adapter after removing the adapter on the pinto intake if that's what you have.
Hi, fast34, the GM alternator might be plan B. After looking some more, I think the upper bracket from a 2.3 fox-body mustang should work. If that doesn't work, I can definitely hook one of those up, and there are plenty of versions that are 85amps or more. As far as the carb, I just have the holley 5200/weber 32 36 dgav that I converted to manual choke. Does the holley 350 end up mounting the same direction as stock, or does it rotate the throttle linkage to be parallel with the motor? The problem I'm having is that the cable isn't long enough to reach the stud with the carb rotated 90 degrees. I may just have to get a universal throttle cable or something.
It will mount the oppisite way of the stock one. There are many different Ford throttle cables that can be found in wrecking yards that are longer than a stock Pinto one, if that's what you have. You can use the stock pinto throttle bracket to with a small notch cut in it and a hole drilled. A thunderbird turbo coupe cable is longer and may even work. Hope this helps you.. Jim
I was going to suggest the turbocoupe throttle cable as well.