I just purchased a 67 Riviera and somewhere in the cars past somebody messed with the wiring. Should I have a positive terminal junction point between the battery and the starter? I know my 64 Olds Jetstar had one. Basically I'm not getting a charge to my battery. Alternator tests fine and so does the regulator. Somebody changed the battery cables and the positive lead goes directly to the starter like on most newer GM cars. I was thinking that there should be a junction point where all of the positive cables for the car come together. I quickly looked under the car and did not see any extra wires at the starter to duplicate the junction. Originally this junction point feeds the all the power to the car... if I'm supposed to have it and it is missing that might explain some things. Let me know if anyone has knowledge on the original wiring for a 67 Riv. Thanks guys.
Just went out to the garage and looked at my 69 Chevelle and it also has a positive terminal junction. Another thing I noticed, the Riviera did not have both wires at the plastic connector that plugs into the back of the alternator. It only had one. The Chevelle has two wires in the little square plug. I would figure that most mid to late 60's GM cars would be wired the same. I still think something is missing on the Riv, but the harness does not look recently butchered. It must have been done a long time ago.
Seems strange. Mine is just as you describe. One wire in the back of the alternator, main power feed direct to the starter.
I have not seen a picture of your set-up. It is very likely that there is no junction, but there should be a regulator. If not, the system may have been converted to a one-wire system. Is there a regulator on the firewall? Ray
There is no junction on the positive cable. On the 67 it runs straight from battery through a hard plastic loom in front of the oil pan on around to the starter.
Ok, I just figured it would have a junction like my other 60's GM cars. Yes, I still have a voltage regulator on the firewall. It is in good working condition. Took it out of my 65 Special which is charging fine just to test things. According to Napa, the alternator tests fine as well. Just the battery will not charge. Is there supposed to be two wires in the plastic plug that goes in the back of the alternator? My Riv only has one, but my 69 Chevelle & my 65 Special have two...
There is a junction it is either at the starter, horn relay, or a separate junction block sometimes on the fire wall and sometimes near the battery. GM used 3 different junctions. It may well be a 1 wire plug at the alt. If so you should have a guage and no indicator lite. You will also only be using 3 of the 4 terminals on the reg. F 2 and 3.
Note on the alternator which wire does exist. It is possible that the wire coming from the dash, (the alt light) is missing. It is alkso possible that the wire carrying the battery voltage to the alternator, or the sense wire is missing. Either problem will cause a no charge condition. If the alt light wire is missing, the alternator rpm will need to exceed about 3000 rpm before it charges. What color is the wire that is in the connector? Ray
Now that I finally had a chance to play with this car I found something very interesting. I took the voltage regulators out of my 69 Chevelle and my 65 Special and put them on the Riv. Didn't work. Neither one charged the battery in the Riviera. Took them to Autozone and they tested both of them and they said they were bad. Funny, because both the Chevelle and the Special had been charging just fine. So I had them test the voltage regulator that came on the Riv and they said it was good. But it isn't charging the Riv's battery. They had two new voltage regulators in the store and he decided to test them straight out of the box. The first one was bad but the second one was good. I bought it just to see if it would work in the Riviera. $15.99 well spent. The car now charges. Put the Riv regulator (which AZ said was good) on the Special and it doesn't charge. Put the supposedly bad voltage regulators back on both the Chevelle and Special and they are still charging fine. Moral of the story: Electronics sometimes do whatever they feel like doing... and Autozone doesn't know how to tell a good voltage regulator from a door knob.ou:
Just for posterity, here is a picture of a Riviera battery cable. Its a special one for sure. Both the battery and the fuel lines are on the wrong sides of the car. Glad you figured out your problem!
Not to highjack, but any idea where I can find this positive battery cable? Mine has the crappy clamp on end and I'd like to replace the whole thing.
There are no repros made. You have to find someone selling an NOS cable. Ive seen them sell anywhere from 175-250ish depending. You can maybe try Wild Bill, aka "Topcat" on the board. He might have one to sell
I suspect that the regulators you were using were the mechanical type, whereas the testers used tested electronic units. There is a way to test the alternator separately, called full fielding, but there is no point in pursuing this since the problem has been resolved. If anyone is interested in this trick, it eliminates the "testers" in the store, which, through experience, have proven useless. Ray
