That’s funny you say that. Both my 70 w-30’s had external Regulators. I asked my friend who was Olds Mechanic for Olds since 1965 all the way through 80’s and he said 70 had external regs. He worked for probably the biggest Olds performance dealer in the country. Berejik Okds. I am going to pick his brain some more.
Your buddy is incorrect on that. I have my '70 W30 that I bought in 1979...still with it's original alt. It's right there in the Olds Service Manual as well...the discussion about these alts and how they are only used on the "4400" series models (ie - 442 and 442 W30)....to quote from the first paragraph on page 12-25 of the Manual: "The Delcotron generator used on all 442 models has a transistorized regulator that is mounted inside the Delcotron." Beyond that I've dealt with and seen many original cars out there ....no voltage reg on the firewall (dimples not punched out), open face alts with correct stampings and date codes, etc. There are also probably some old road test magazine articles showing engine compartment pics that would show no firewall mounted alt and the open face feature.
You are mostly correct and I am a little correct. I just spoke with him. He told me 69-71 442 had internal voltage regulators like you say except when car was equipped with rear window defogger then they got a 63 Amp alternator with external regulator. I trust him more than anyone on Olds as he worked on hundreds of them.
My first 442 had the rear window defogger so I had a voltage regulator. I guess my thoughts are going back to that car.
We stand corrected. Good info on the rear window defog requirement. There are two units used in '70 with the open face/diamondback....1100880 37A and 1100890 55A.. Thanks.
Patton, you make me pine for the past. I wish I still had My Rally Red w-30 convertible I bought in 1980. Black stripes, Black interior and white top. All original paint. Buckets and Hurst dual gate. 3.91 gears. Car was a stunner and fast. Probably a toss up which was better looking. That or my GSX. The soft top was the bonus. I sold it in 1987 for $10,000. Peanuts now but good money then before the market took off.
Oh yeah - what's the saying? "When to top drops the price goes up!". Cool sounding car Dave. That is a hard call (which car better looking)....they both have unique and distinguishing features. The satin black hood treatment on the GSX's really does it for me (of course there's that torque thing as well). Buick knocked it out of the park on those. Back in high school down here we frequently saw a yellow '70 GSX in our area. Never figured out who it was and we (our group of friends) were pretty good about figuring out who owned cool looking cars like the GSX. Many times we'd see a cool car parked....which meant we had a chance to wander over and stare. I can't say we ever saw the GSX parked....just driving down a certain road from time to time. I've always had hardtop cars but converts have their own style and cool looks. A good customer of mine here has a '70 W30 like the one you had...same colors but w/a black top.... 3.23's w/AC. The Olds converts have been popular for a LONG time....and they keep popping up for sale. It never ceases to amaze me how "new finds" keep coming up. People are turning over more rocks and looking harder. I can name at least 8 '70-71 442 and W30 converts that folks I know have "discovered" over the past year.
