You can
a.Wire the hot lead directly to the battery and simply disconnect the voltage regulator. This is the best way to do it as you are not running full charging amperage through the ammeter anymore. Since your circuitry should be sized to at least 125 % of the maximum capacity of the alternator you could potentially cause problems if you were ever to come into a full load situation with a LOT of accesories, an accidental short to ground or a bad battery. If you have a camper this is probably the way to go. I have a electric winch on my boat which draws off my battery so I use this way. The disadvantage is that your ammeter will not work. If your circuit is not sized to handle 125 amps which it is not then go this route unless you like the posibility of electrical fires. Dont tell me it cant happen . I have scars on my foot from a '69 C10 that had a one wire 100 amp alternator and was wired to run through the ammeter and the wiring caught fire. ( I will state for the record the previous owner had replaced the inline fuses with bolt shanks. Stupid Bastard! )
b. To use this method you MUST use circuit protection and you will be limited in alternator output to that rating. Make it 40 amps. . You can wire the alternator to run through the ammeter circuit by wiring a 10 gauge wire from the hot lead on the alternator to the old charging line that ran to the alternator. There are 4 wires that go the the regulator . wire red and blue together. yellow and brown go together as well. Thats it. Your'e done .You can either wire them together with a good splice or you can jumper the connections with 1/4 male spade terminals and some jumpers.
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No truck :-(
Last edited by mikep; 08-13-2002 at 12:58 AM.
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