Single wire alternator

464Saloon

I'm sure a few of you have this already done to their car. I basically have completed the 12v conversion to my 54 Special following Parks instructions. Here is the problem. Per the instructions, it shows running a wire from the number 2 terminal on the alternator to the battery post of the alternator. It shows running a wire from the number 1 terminal to the generator light wire and branching it to the ignition switch. When the battery is connected both my oil light and gen light are dimmly lit with key off. When key is switched to on the oil light goes bright and the gen light goes off. For some reason I have a backfeed and I thought it was the wire to the switch, but when I took it out I still had the problem. Have not run the car yet because I haven't got the starter back. Will this correct itself once the alternator is run or is something wrong with the wiring instructions? Any ideas?

Park_W

464: I'm not sure what you mean by "branching it to the ignition switch." One thing you can check is to be sure things are connected to the correct ignition switch terminal. There are two "output" terminals on the switch ... one should feed only the ignition coil, and the other should feed everything else that's "ignition switch controlled." Did you wire the suggested resistor in parallel with the GEN light? No problem if you omit it, but in many cases the engine will have to be revved a bit after startup in order to start the alternator charging (the resistor feeds a little extra current to the alternator's "startup" circuit. Without the resistor, the startup current comes only through the GEN light filament, and is less than what Delco recommends. I suggest the use of the original 6v GEN bulb since the filament will pass a little more current that a comparable 12v bulb).



If the problem remains, drop me an e-mail at HETpwald@mindspring.com (drop the HET for the correct address). Park Waldrop

Unknown

Park, I Think We Have Rob Fixed Up, He Came Up Today And Talked To My Mechanic, . We Determined He Had A Faulty Alternator. He Replaced The Alternator And Wired As Directed And Called Back And Said All Is Well, Bill Albright

464Saloon

bill a wrote:

Park, I Think We Have Rob Fixed Up, He Came Up Today And Talked To My Mechanic, . We Determined He Had A Faulty Alternator. He Replaced The Alternator And Wired As Directed And Called Back And Said
All Is Well, Bill Albright

I suspected earlier that it might be the Alternator since I was showing current on both the # 1 and # 2 terms, but since this was an all new conversion and a freshly rebuilt alternator, I just assumed something else was most likely wrong. Overlooked the obvious. Thanx Bill for everything, clock is in and keeping acurate time so far, dash is all back together and if I had my starter back, I could fire it up. So far everything is working properly.