How to tell if I have one wire Alternator ?

[vpittman]

Hi all,
I just purchased a '73 cuda. The owner said that the alternator was rebuilt with an internal regulator, but it has 3 wires coming off the alternator, 2 to the regulator and one to the battery. I just got back from an overall inspection and they measured 16+ volts at idle and both leads at the regulator are hot.

So how can I tell if it's internally regulated, preferably without opening it up... or just wired wrong

Thanks
Victor

[Chryco Psycho]

if you disconnect the 2 field wires & it still shows more then 13.2 v i guess it is a 1 wire alt , yours is wired typically for a normal 70 & newer system , , you may just have a bad reg or shorted alt causing the overcharging , most 1 wire alts I have seen are GM style not Mopar .

[MEK-Dangerfield]

Victor,

 Welcome aboard here.   

Any chance you can post a picture of your setup? If you can't figure out how to post, you can E-Mail me any picture and I'll post it for you.  MEKrunner@aol.com




   Mike

[vpittman]

I will post some pic's once I figure how to get them off my friends camera...

Interesting note... I just went out to check it and now I'm seeing just 12.5 both at stop and idle...

Could it be that the regulator finally just gave it up ?

[vpittman]

Ok,
Here are some pic's. On the first one the large red wire goes straight to the battery, the black wire (on the same lug as the red wire) goes to the ignition (I'm guessing, it's hard to trace) and the two brown wires go to the regulator.





Thanks !

[vpittman]

Never mind... bad regulator...

Putting out 13.5 now.

[Chryco Psycho]

Glad you got it figured out 

[vpittman]

Well... I thought it was the regulator...

I just installed a voltmeter... with everything as it is now it reads 13.2 at idle, but jumps to over 16 at higher rpm.

If I take off all the wires except the one directly to the battery, it reads only 12 but doesn't move at high rpm.

I I leave everything except the one wire, it reads 10.5 and doesn't move at high rpm.

I'm confused...

[Moparteenchallenger]

at your battier when your car is runing you should have 12 to 14 volts. i had that same problem in my old trail duster it burnt my hole wireing up and burnt up the msd ingnition i had i was caused bye the altertating post being lose inside and it was get 16 at high idel so you mit want to check that and on a one wire you shouldnt have three. on the one wire from summit it has the regulater on the alternater it is just bolted on to it.