Juturna67

I am thinking of upgrading to a 1 wire alternator but had a few questions. Anyone know of any sites that sell quality alternators? And second, should the 1 wire just bolt on or would I need to buy a kit of some sort?

Thanks!

67mustang302

I run a Powermaster 140A. Just run the charge wire from the alternator to the hot side of the battery or the hot side of the starter relay, and unplug the stock voltage regulator.

Powermasters come with the charge wire.

MonsterBilly

Same as above here. I did however completely delete the regulator. Its very easy. I bought mine from summit

jlg2002

One thing to keep in mind is that these 1 wire setup make more current then the original alternator feed wire was designed to handle- you could start a fire in the wire bundle if the amp draw gets too high.. either Run a second wire (#8 -10 wire) to the battery side of the starter relay with the black and yellow wire or replace it with one that is rated for the 140 A electrical load.

67mustang302

A 1 wire is wired up with only 1 wire going to the battery. Don't even connect the original wires from the alternator. And current output from the alternator is determined only by the load the vehicle is pulling, all alternators regulate their current output so match the load the car is pulling and remain at constant voltage (that's what the voltage regulator does).

If an electrical fire will start from an overload, it will start from any type of alternator, or even just from the battery alone.

jlg2002

Thanks for the tutorial, I might have needed that 38 years ago when was new to the auto electric business. Now that I have transitioned to the design/support aerospace electrical systems, I believe that makes me qualified to comment further:

What you are somehow missing in the original comment is that the stock wire (lots of people still use it) is not sized to take the electrical current loads people now want in their cars (e.g. audio amps, halogen lights, etc...). That was my point. The factory Alt's output wire in the older cars was sized to a 35-38A alt load and it can contain that current for extended time without burning up but add the new loads and it will flash pretty quickly.

67mustang302

Which is a result of the load. That has nothing to do with the alternator. A 1 wire charges directly into the power source of the car (battery) and not the original harness.

Most every modern electrical system added should be wired through a relay anyway, which bypasses the entire factory harness (most of the systems come with relay harnesses of some sort). But yes, if a bunch of new electrical load is added into the existing harness, it can burn up.

But that's not because of a 1 wire alternator or a higher amperage alternator, it's from too much load. And with a 1 wire, the factory alternator wiring is completely bypassed, so it's rated load becomes irrelevant. The factory alternator wiring IS a problem if you run a higher amperage 3-wire on the factory charging wires, but only if you exceed their ampacity.

I didn't miss your original point, the point I was making is that with a 1 wire...the factory wiring doesn't matter as far as the charging circuit goes. The factory charge wiring is bypassed completely with a 1 wire alternator, that typically comes with an 8 or 6AWG that is wired directly to the battery.

What does matter is the load placed on the factory wiring, and that has nothing to do with the alternator.

Juturna67

So I am going to attempt to install the alternator tomorrow. I don't imagine it being very difficult. How would I go about removing the regulator, and where is it located?(sorry noob here =/)

edit: Would this be it?

Boogie's_AutoRama

Yep...

67mustang302

Yeah, just unplug it.