Wiring Alternator & Eliminating Regulator? [Archive] - Chevelle Tech

: Wiring Alternator & Eliminating Regulator?


BlackNBlue65
Aug 19th, 05, 4:36 PM
Funny to read the other post similar to this here today. :mad: That kinda funny. I didn't want to hijack his post, so i started this one.

I put in my perty chrome alternator in last night. I clearly made errors in the wiring as about 10 minutes into my commute this morning, the battery had used up it's juice and the car shut down. FORTUNATELY, i had set the old alternator and wiring in the car along withe tools. I did a road-side reswap back to the old setup and stood with jumper cables in hand waiting for a good semaritan to stop and give me a jump. 10 minutes of no luck followed by one nice guy in a white SVT Mustang and vroom..back to normal and down the road I went.

No, to the questions at hand. The alternator I have uses the new style GM plug. I was told that this alt was made to EITHER use the internal regulator or an original external regulator. I took that for Gospel and just snipped off the old style plug, replaced it with the new style GM plug, snapped it together and viola. WRONG. Apparently, that doesn't work :clonk:

I'm going to forget about trying to use the external regulator and just wire it as a one wire. I've read enough and seen diagrams on it...correct me where I'm wrong please. The main alternator post goes right to the + battery terminal. The clip/plug on the alt is ONLY used to control the idiot light right? It can be completly left off, but if I want to retain the idiot light, the S wire gets connected back to the light and the F wire can be jumped over to the main alt post.

Good so far?

The real question I have is if I don't run the existing main wire off the alt that runs to the regulator, will I be depriving other systems of juice? Do i need to run a pigtail to the regulator to provide power elsewhere? Can I eliminate the regulator all together and if so, how? Which wires get elimiated and which get jumpered.

Unfortunately, I don't have a wiring diagram yet..it's on the list of stuff to buy.

Thanks for ANY help!

HemiTCoupe
Aug 19th, 05, 8:54 PM
http://www.chevelles.com/techref/ftecref14.html

Pat

BlackNBlue65
Aug 19th, 05, 9:18 PM
:rolleyes: guess I could have found that one if I had looked hard enough.


Thanks tons for the link!!!

Peter F.
Aug 20th, 05, 1:57 AM
I think they meant it could be used as a 1-wire or 3-wire but still internally regulated. A GM alternator can't just change from internal to external regulator by wiring it differently.

Peter

undee70ss
Aug 20th, 05, 3:35 AM
See my post here
http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100353

Finally
Aug 20th, 05, 6:07 PM
See the post Greg linked. Don't use the previous link as this wires the alt as a 1 wire and it's really not the best way to do it. It's not much more work to do it right, assuming you don't want dim headlights, etc.