Hello, I have a '72 Buick 350 in my '63 Jeep pick-up. I'm trying to figure out how to connect the Jeep's harness to the alternator that came with the engine (I will try to post a pic of the alternator's backside later). According to the Jeep's wiring diagram, there are five wires going into the alternator: 1) To horn relay 2) To starter solenoid (I'm assuming 1 and 2 can be connected together) 3) Voltage regulator on fender 4) Same as 3 5) Same as 3 Any idea where each wire goes on the alt? Thank you! Mikel
Mine only had 3 wires, two to the regulator and one to the starter/battery...iirc. I'd take a good look at the alternator diagram at http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/chevymain1.shtml. It's for a Ch@vy, but don't let that throw you, it sounds like you could adapt it pretty easily to your Jeep.
1 wire reg THE JEEP USED A MOTOROLA ALT W/SEPERATE REG.it was a pile 'o s#$t from the beginning.ignore the wires in it now and replace your internal reg with a 1 wire,self sensing reg.just the batt terminal hook-up and off you go :3gears: if you cant find one locally,i can sell you one for $15.00 shipped :TU:
Getting away from a Motorola is a great idea. Imho, 3-wire hookups are far better than 1-wire - remote voltage sensing, the idiot light will still work, and you won't have to rev a cold engine to get the alt to kick in. See the mad electrical site for tons more info. :TU:
Hello, What's wrong with the 1 wire alternator? High charging RPM's? This is what I have. It still has wires attached, but I'm not sure what they are. The thicker one I would assume it goes to the battery, while the other two would go to the voltage regulator. There is an unused terminal that I'm not sure if it's supposed to be used. Thanks, Mikel
This is the Jeep's original wiring diagram: http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/62-65_230/62_65_230_WiringDiagram.jpg
I used an internally regulated alternator with "1" wire, but connect the exciter to the postive to make it work a bit better. The idiot light works too.
Remote Voltage Sensing Truzi, does your idiot light come on with key on and engine off? Most 1-wire setups don't use the brown(?) idiot light wire... o No: Mikel, the main advantage 3-wire setups have over 1-wire setups is remote voltage sensing. That is, the regulator (wherever it is) is sensing the voltage away from the alternator output terminal, usually at the main power bus/relay/connection. Think of the voltage drop between the alternator and the electrical devices as air pressure, and you'll see that it's better to regulate the pressure at the end of the pipe where you use it, rather than at the source where it's generated. In other words, by sensing the voltage closer to the parts that use the electricity, you'll tend to make the alternator work a bit more, but you'll have full voltage at the end of the wire where you need it. For example, if a voltage regulator is set to kick the alternator on and maintain 14.4 volts (what our "12-volt" cars are actually made for, 6 x 2.2volt cells in a "12-volt" battery) If the regulator is sensing voltage right at the alternator output (non-remote sensing, what 1-wire alternators do), then everything 'downstream' will actually see less than the 14.4 volts that the alternator is putting out, because of the voltage drop that occurs naturally in the wiring. Most often, everything 'sees' 12-13 volts, which is ok, but... If the regulator is sensing voltage away from the alternator, like at the main power bus where everything draws current from, then in order to maintain the target 14.4 volts THERE, it'll kick the alternator up to putting out maybe 16 volts to overcome the dreaded voltage drop. NOW you'll have enough (14.4) voltage to get brighter lights, stronger ignition, etc. Of course, there'll be another voltage drop from the main bus to your headlights, etc, but that's why lots of people advocate using a relay with as short and as big a wire as possible to high load items like that (lights, fans, etc.) Car manufactures could have lessened all this voltage drop with bigger wires, but who wants a 2-inch thick bundle of wires all over the car? Hope that makes sense, I had to read the Mad Electrical stuff and some other pages a couple of times myself. I guess the 'ideal' setup would be to sense the voltage at the farthest end of the wiring harness, but that'd be too much extra wiring... **If you look at GM wiring diagrams, you'll see that they (both internal and external regulators) connect the alternator output and the voltage sensing leads to each other somewhere AWAY from the alternator output terminal. That's the "remote sensing". You can connect them right at the alternator, but then your alternator is only measuring it's own output, and your car will never have full voltage at the other ends of the wires.
At any rate, after looking at the wiring diagram (woof! i'm dizzy now... ), and comparing it to these I found online, it looks like the only real difference is that on the Jeep, the horn relay is tapped straight off the alternator output instead of somewhere else like the Buick does. And I have no idea which wire is which at the voltage regulator (danged sloppy diagrams, reminds me of my F*rd :blast: ) Any markings on either the alternator or regulator? If you want to keep that Motorola (?) alternator, youll need to get a better diagram thatll show which voltage regulator and/or alternator terminal is the field, relay, output, indicator, I cant tell by that one. Maybe somebody on a Jeep forum would? o No: Id strongly suggest swapping to a reliable GM alternator, either externally or internally regulated. Internal-reg alternators can put out more, and everybody has them, but theres nothing wrong with an external regulator. Either way, therell be 3 connections on the alternator: Output, voltage sensing, and either indicator light or relay. ---------------------------------- If you go to a GM externally-regulated alternator, Then: 1. Get a GM regulator, 2. Get a Buick alternator and wire it same as the Buick, using the diagrams in the above link. 3. Your horn relay can come straight off the alternator output or you could move it somewhere else. (you can spec a reg. and alt. from a '71 Buick LeSabre w/ 350 (or probably any pre-'73 Buick 350 car). ---------------------------------- If you go to an internal regulated GM alternator (less under the hood), you would: (look at the MadElectrical site for part numbers) 1. Remove all of the wiring from the existing alternator to the existing regulator (or see note below). 2. Leave or replace the heavy output wire (leads to starter solenoid, then battery and ignition switch) 3. Lengthen and connect the existing wire that comes from the dash light through the existing regulator - straight to the indicator terminal on the new alternator (marked #1) 4. Add a new (remote) voltage sensing wire to alternator terminal #2, and run it either to the starter solenoid or better yet the ignition switch, connecting it to the same terminal as the alt output wire. (THIS is your remote voltage sensing wire, the farther away / more wire is has, the better.) NOTE: if the Jeep external regulator wires are in the same order as the GM external regulator( F, 2, 3, 4), or you can figure out which one is which, you could jumper the F to the 4, and the 2 to the 3, and accomplish the same thing as steps 1-4. :TU: **If you do the internal-reg alternator route, and then then the car wont shut off no problem, youve got the #1 and #2 alternator wires backwards. Dont worry, youre not the first. Pull the alt plug to kill the engine, swap the wires around, and the alternator will stop feeding itself and the engine will turn off with the key like its supposed to. And dont ask me how I know I know that.... ou:
I connected the brown wire (forget how). I do get a faint glow in the accessory position. I figure a diode can fix that. I do like the idea of moving the connection to the main bus, though.
I forget, but I think the light is supposed to be on in the accessory position. So long as it comes on in the run position (engine not running) but goes out when the engine is running, you're ok on the light. When I converted to a 12SI internal-reg. alternator, I first hooked the sensing wire to the alt. output, and saw 13 volts at the underdash gauge. I later went back and hooked it back to the (white?) wire, and jumped the #2 and #3 terminals on the old regulator plug (longer wires in the sensing circuit), and now I see just over 14 volts on the gauge pretty much all the time. I also like their comments on having a long wire on the charging circuit, so your battery charges slowly and doesn't cook itself. Looking at the Buick wiring diagrams, we've got the same thing going on in out ol' cars - which explains why batteries last *forever* in the 2NABOT - I had a 4-year battery in there for almost 10 years before I let it go dry and die.
I forget exactly (it's been parked for a while). I know it has a very dim glow when it should be out. However, it does come on when I turn the key, and goes out when I start the engine.
nitty gritty a i wire reg will NOT charge at 16volts.the sensing is taken right at the back of the alt,off the main rectifier through the diode trio.the h.d. and marine industries use them right out of the assembly line,with no problem.the charging circuit is completed through the GROUND,or neg,so sensing away from the alt will make no diff as long as you dont have a severe voltage drop.1/2 of a volt is max.the only reason a 1 wire needs to be reved to turn on is,too much material has been taken off the stator winding during rewinding,to true it up,creating too large of an air gap between the stator and the clamshells on the rotor.this is QUITE common on stators that have been around for 30+ years and been resurfaced more than 2-3 times.also pully sizes are commonly altered in the remanufactured alts,make sure you have the correct diameter for your application,and idle speed.smalle turns quicker,so to large will impede the turn on speed.
