Help! 2 wire Alt convertion question?

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Good morning 64dart170. Check out this link to e-bay seller Classic Car Wiring I ordered one for my 71 Swinger. Very easy to read and laminated for protection. It covers from front to rear. $20 shipped.
Sound's like you and the BOF are getting pretty comfy together:clock:. It never fail's when you try to fix/upgrade something it allways snowball's.

Just remember "No good deed goes unpunished".
 
uscartool.com offers a kit for charging system upgrade but it wont solve all you problems in a long term sense. You really do have a mess there.
The large wire on the altenater/s should have a rubber boot on it because its hot at all times. One fumble with the dip stick ,etc.. can do lots of harm to your wirring.
You asked about the horn wirring also. Looks like 3 horns there. Should be one or 2 at most.
I understand the need to get it driving again so do what you have to do today but... Next time you go to the parts yard, I suggest you get 99% of an unbutchered harness and replace all that you need to with better original stuff.
Yours isn't so different from many I have seen. Crimped on wire terminals everywhere.
When I upgrade the voltage regulator I'm gonna have to cut a factory connector off the green wire. I'll spend a half hour picking that connector apart so I can reuse it on the added blue wire ( and I will use a length of blue wire ) to back of altenater. Correct colors and insulated terminals make future service and repairs simpler for everyone.
OK so I'm a butcher too. I try to produce steaks and not hamburger LOL
Good luck
 
LOL!! You guys are great! Homecloned it all started comming together when I put up the tent for "BOF" She seemed to like waking up this AM with no dew on her!!
Thanks again Redfish you always seem to be at the cutting edge of knowledge! LOL! You wouldn't beleive the cars I've looked at the past few days. The only problem the harneses are 67 specific (as usual) I am going out to the junk yard next week to get pics of cars. The guy that ownes them wants to sell parts, You won't believe the cars, kinda rusty but alot of nice trim door handles etc....
Thanks Again guys!
Almost forgot, You should hear those horns! LOL!!! They sound like the president wants you out the f-in way!!!
 
I cannot believe the amount of misinformation on this blog....

The newer style alternators field is controlled by the ground or negative side of the field winding and the positive side of the field winding simply goes to a good 12 volt source. You DO NOT want to ground the 2nd field wire to the newer style alternator because it is used in series with the newer style regulator which controls the field current and thus the output of the alternator. If you do ground it you will get max voltage out of the alternator at all times because you are bypassing the regulator..

The old style alternator had one field wire which went to the regulator which controlled the positive side of the field coil. The other side of the field coil was internally grounded and did not have to come out.

I do agree the later alternator is a better way to go if it's wired correctly. You do get less dimming of the headlights at idle and more current is available as needed. Only 1 wire needs to be added to make it work properly.
 
cudajim said:
I cannot believe the amount of misinformation on this blog....

The newer style alternators field is controlled by the ground or negative side of the field winding and the positive side of the field winding simply goes to a good 12 volt source. You DO NOT want to ground the 2nd field wire to the newer style alternator because it is used in series with the newer style regulator which controls the field current and thus the output of the alternator. If you do ground it you will get max voltage out of the alternator at all times because you are bypassing the regulator..

The old style alternator had one field wire which went to the regulator which controlled the positive side of the field coil. The other side of the field coil was internally grounded and did not have to come out.

I do agree the later alternator is a better way to go if it's wired correctly. You do get less dimming of the headlights at idle and more current is available as needed. Only 1 wire needs to be added to make it work properly.
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That's why I told him to wire it just like the diagram (which was the late model charging system diagram) just like ma mopar designed it. That's the way mine is wired and haven't had any trouble out of it.... not suppose to. I don't know why the 2nd field wire should be grounded or why anyone would suggest suck a thing.
 
if you use the newer style alt. with a newer (dual field) regulator then you need to use the other field wire to the regulator. if you use the newer alt. with the old style (single field) regulator then you ground the other field wire. if you look at the old style alternator meant for a single field setup then you can see the negative side is grounded to the case internally. this is why you can use the dual field alt. with a single field regulator but not a single field alt. with a dual field regulator.
 
as hard as it gets to find available parts I went with grounding the second field wire...so i have choices of which alternators I can use.and since I have quite a collection of the old style points type regulators I'm sticking with them until I run out........that's gonna take a while..the points type are adjustable and my headlights are quite brite even in gear at a stoplight
 
Not to go totally off topic here, but in the picture with the horns, what is the silver thing on the lower left and what would be attached to it? Mine has one of those and I have no idea what is was used for.
 
best bet it to use the dual fld alt and regulator. only have to add the one wire (colored blue in the pic). easy job only take at max an hour.


new0regulator2.jpg
 
Dartnewbie said:
Not to go totally off topic here, but in the picture with the horns, what is the silver thing on the lower left and what would be attached to it? Mine has one of those and I have no idea what is was used for.
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The silver thing is a mounting bracket for an radiator/antifreeze overflow bottle. Kit is on sale everywhere for $9.50 or less!
 
64dart170 said:
The silver thing is a mounting bracket for an radiator/antifreeze overflow bottle. Kit is on sale everywhere for $9.50 or less!
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Do you have any more info on that coolant recovery ? I want one.
 
RedFish said:
Do you have any more info on that coolant recovery ? I want one.
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Hi Redfish,
I'm kinda wondering if you're pullin my leg, your always so dialed in on stuff!
Advance $9.50, See pics of box and install.
Good Luck!

overflow bottle box.jpg


overflow bottles 012.jpg
 
homecloned said:
Welcome back 64dart170. I hope the Dart is treating you better.
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Hey homecloned,
Yeah, as usual, but still better than most people!, $306.42 for 2 rear freeze out plugs! There went 1/2 of the unemployment check just in time for the house payment for the other half! Broke again......................
Oh, I'm not REALLY here right now....................you haven't heard from me!8)
 
64dart170 said:
Hi Redfish,
I'm kinda wondering if you're pullin my leg, your always so dialed in on stuff!
Advance $9.50, See pics of box and install.
Good Luck!
Click to expand...

Nope, hadn't seen that before. I'll be installing mine on Monday :)
 
tedsweet said:
keep it simple, ground the 2nd field wire.
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Weather you have the old style alternator or the newer ones they both had only one field coil which energizes the alternator to make it put out current. The only difference is that the older alternators had one end of the field coil grounded internally and they regulated at the positive end of the field coil. The newer style alternators applied positive voltage to one side of the field winding and regulated the negative side using a solid state regulator. I suppose if you had a newer alternator and an old style regulator and you hooked it up to the positive field winding and grounded the other it would work for a while until or unless you exceed the current capability of the regulator in which case the regulator may fail. It all depends on how much current you need. If everything is stock you may be just fine with the older setup. If you have halogen lights, big boom box stereo etc, etc. you'll need more poop (that's a technical term) from your alternator so do the upgrade with the proper regulator.
 
The voltage regulator regulates just that, voltage. by regulating the voltage to the rotor through the slip rings you reduce the magnetic field strength and that lowers your output voltage. the amount of amps is produced by the rotor spinning faster pushing the power through the stator. thats why when you buy an alt. upgrade kit the main two pieces they come with is a wider stator and diodes (the diodes to handle the added amps.) as long as you upgrade the charge wire you could put a 100 or more amp alt. on an old single field regulator. the "load" does not pass through the regulator. it only senses the output voltage and adjust to apply more voltage when the system demands more and that causes a voltage drop. thats why you don't see aftermarket regulators claiming higher amps. the amp load is handled by the alt. not the voltage regulator. single or dual field they do the same thing just in a different way.
 
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