Alternator Motorcraft or GENERAL MOTORS

Depends on if you want the cheapest store brand they make or OEM quality Motorcraft. I’ve gone through enough cheap alternators in my life that I only mess with OEM anymore.

If you can get motorcraft, that is my recommendation.

The alternator itself can get bad only if the bearings are shot. If you don't have play on the shaft, and it spins freely then the alternating part of the alternator is fine. What can get pretty bad are the diode rectifier bridge.

If you have the V6 4.3 it's one of the more dependable motors GM ever made. The factory alt is rated at 105 amps. Should be enough for your needs.

Here is a stock Mk2 65 amp alternator (top) and the generic one-wire GM alternator (bottom). They're physically the same size, and the posts are almost identical in length. The GM fan is indented in the center though, and the VW one is flat. I used the GM fan, cause my stocker is disgusting, lol. I swapped the VW hardware/pulley over, since the GM pulley was obviously no good (flat, not offset).

Triumph TR7. You're a bunch of amateurs. I'm a British car guy in general but the Wedge was exactly as bad as advertised. When it couldn't keep a battery charged I converted it to a GM alternator, then the radiator fell out. A previous owner had pop-riveted a license plate over a hole in the floor. Keeping the carbs synched is a black art. The seat frame snapped as I went down the road - I later found out that it had been hose-clamped together by a previous owner. It didn't catch fire as many times as my Spitfire has, but at least the Spit is fun to drive. The headlights didn't just pop up out of sync, they popped up and *turned on* on their own.

I've also owned a Hyundai Pony and it was a Toyota Cressida next to the Wedge.