Pkohn1

I converted a 70 Mustang to a one wire alt. I have connected the two inner wires on the plug to the voltage regulator and have run a heavy gauge wire from the alt to the positive side of the starter solenoid. The alternator is an internal voltage regulator and it does work and the battery is fully charged. After the conversion I am not getting 14+ volts to the battery. Can I run the hot wire from the Alt dirrectly to the postive side of the terminal so the alt is charging the battery? Any help would greatly be appreciated sincerly drained!

JMD

If all of your connections are sound, it will not make any difference if the alt is connected to the battery or the solenoid. The instalation will be cleaner and more trouble free if you leave the big wire hooked to the solenoid. Cleaner because it will look better, and more trouble free because by hooking the big wire directly to the battery, this connection will suffer the effects of corrosion, to a greater degree even than the battery cable itself. (greater because of the smaller size of the wire). It may become a constant source of frustration.

Alternators should charge at about 13.8 Volts Max. If your voltmeter reads between 12 and 14 volts, you should be fine.

I do have a question for you, why do you need to keep the voltage regulator if your alternator is internally regulated? I seem to remember others statingthat the regulator performs functions other than regulation of the alternator, is this right?

Pkohn1

I wired the alt directly to the positive side of the starter solenoid for the clean look. I pulled the plugged to the voltage regulator and was told to connect the two inner wires together since there function was to cycle the externally regulated alt to change the batter when needed. What I am running into is the battery is not getting charged. The Alt was check twice before I installed it to make sure it was charging and the battery was fully charged. The car just pulls all the juice out of the battery and does not recharge it. I am stumped?

JMD

I don't know, you said it was a 1 wire alternator, so therefore if the one wire is hooked up it SHOULD charge the battery, regardless of how the old regulator is hooked up. (1st dumb question,,,, it is not an internaly regulated 3 wire alt right?)

I know that this isalready the seconddumb question, but the alternator wire is hooked to thebattery side of the solenoid, and not to the starter side right?

I have never run a 1 wire alternator before, but I dont think it could be really complicated to make it charge. If you are certain that it is hooked to the right side of the solenoid, it would have to charge if it is working right.

With the car running, place a steel or iron object to the back of the alternator case where the shaft comes through, if the unit is charging, it should attract the object toward theend of the shaftwith magnitisim. This is a quick test that I use on GM alternaors to check some aspects of charging, it should work on yours as well.

If there is no attraction, run a temporary test wire directly from the positive side of the battery to the stud on the alternator and try the magnitisim test again. If it fails this test again, then I would have to say that the alternator is defective, regardless of the prior tests.