Re: [AMC-list] One wire alternator

[Jim Blair <carnuck@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

You're off a little bit on that Frank. The main wire MUST go to the battery   solidly. The sensor wire also must be attached (not switched) direct battery power. The light wire is the on/off switch to the regulator. The power passing through the light is grounded through the connector on the Alt. 
    As soon as the Alt kicks in, the feedback   from the Alt negates the power on the other side of the bulb and it goes off (2 positives can't make a circuit. ) That is unless one side is stronger than the other, in which case you get the infamous Alt light glow. That is why a 10 ohm resistor was added to the circuit, bypassing the bulb so it only lights in extreme pos/neg conditions. 
   The first vehicle to get one of these Alts was the Chev Vega and it didn't have the resistor. People complained about the light (who knows how many were changed because of it?), but if the bulb burned out, it didn't charge at all. My ex-wife's mother bought a vega at a yard sale because "no-one could get it to charge". 
   Being an "apprentice" mechanic at the time, I got out my volt/ohm meter and started measuring. I found battery power on the 2 leads and traced them back to the battery. I added a new ground lead battery to body, because my '66 Chev's problem was cured by that. Still no go. 
   When I tested the third wire, it had neither power nor ground, so first I tried grounding the terminal. Nothing. Then I put power to it, and I heard the Alt kick in. I took the power lead off, and it kept charging till I shut the car off. Next time I started it, I had to do it again. 
   I noticed the dash light was out, so I put in a new bulb and the charging system started working normal. Then I made the mistake of unplugging the connector with the motor running. My voltmeter was attached and I saw it spike to nearly 20 and the motor stalled. The Alt had gone full field when the sensor wire came off! (that's why it can't be put on switched power)


From: Frank Swygert 
To: amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [AMC-list] One wire alternator
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The one and three wire alternators are the same except for the regulator. The three wire regulator has the two wire plug on it, no plug on the one-wire, naturally. One of the wires on the plug goes to switched battery voltage, or you can run a jumper from the big battery wire to that position, essentially making the three-wire alternator a one-wire. The second wire in the plug goes to the dash light. So you can easily use a common three-wire alternator.
 		 	   		  
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