Apparently the newer ones have a diode or something preventing feed-back through the field wire as you suggested. My car was only driven once every 2-3 weeks while I was in Korea and never had a problem. But I better check and see if the wire is just jumpered or I ran a switched wire to it. I remember jumpering it at one point, but but don't remember if I ran it differently when I rebuilt the car. On May 19, 2005 Jerry Casper wrote: > --- farna@xxxxxxx wrote: > > An alternator has to have some battery voltage going > > to it to excite the field before it will charge. A > > standard Delco alternator can be made into a > > one-wire by simply attaching the field wire to the > > battery cable stud on the back of the alternator. > > > Uh, two things...a single-wire alternator has a > SELF-exciting regulator, which doesn't require a field > voltage to get it to start charging, just a higher > potential from the alternator turning over at a higher > rpm. THis is NOT the same thing as a standard > alternator! > The OTHER thing is that if you jumper a normal GM > style alternator Field winding wire to the Battery > stud, this will cause your battery to discharge more > quickly over time, as you are keeping a constant ( if > tiny ) electrical field in the field circuit, and if > your car sits a couple of weeks, it could be dead by > then. How do I know? I did this with my '57 Chevy > years ago, when I upgraded from a generator to an > alternator, and instead of finding the correct wire > from the key switch, I just jumpered it. Sure, it > works...but you will discharge your battery , too. If > you don't let the car sit for weeks, it's fine, but if > you go away a few weeks, and come back, dead or low. I > lived a few hours away from where I stored my car, and > would only come back on weekends and drive it. If I > missed a weekend, it'd be 2 weeks. I learned quickly > that bypassing the shut-off circuit for an alternator > field circuit wasn't a good idea. > "Maybe" the more modern GM alt's are ok with it, but > they still are NOT 1-wire with self-exciting > regulator. ============================================================= Posted by wixList Archiver -- http://www.amxfiles.com/wixlist