One Wire Alternator???

[sixtyfour]

I'm looking to install a high output alternator in my 64 but I'm unsure whether my truck has a one wire alternator? How do I determine this, looking at my alt I have now, it has one large wire going to the back, but then it also has another wire that plugs into the side? I'm guessing I do not have a one wire alt. I believe the alt I have now came out of a 1984 Camaro.

Thanks

[joe231]

nope, not a one wire
a one wire is literally "one" wire

[sixtyfour]

That's what I figured....thanks.

[poorboy]

Here's how you can wire that alt in.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=119379

[tomlamb]

I just installed a 1 wire in my truck this weekend. I got it from e-bay and it did resolve a problem I was having with my TPI hesitating (going into open loop I was told) with the AC on because there was not enough amperage. Easy job, all that is needed is to connect the included heavy gage wire to the output post on the back of the new unit and the battery.

[Shorty Cox]

Here you go,

It is so easy. I did it to my '64, and i would think it would be just as easy on yours.

1.Take the regulator off and throw it as far as you can.
2. It should have had 4 wires connected to it.
3. Using a test light, locate the wire that is hot (12 volts)when the ignition switch is in the "run" position.
4. now, locate the wire that runs from the regulator position to the gen/alt position.
5. splice the wire located in number 3 above to the one located in number 4.
6. now you have a wire at the gen/alt location that is hot (12volts)with the key in the "run" position.
7. forget the other two wires at the regulator position.
8. Now remove the gen/alt and throw it as far as you can(probably can't throw it as far as you did the regulator!!)
9. Should be three wires going to the it. two small wires and one large wire. The large wire is connected to the battery and is hot (12 volts) all the time. (On some vehicles, it may connect to the battery via the horn relay)
10. Go to the parts house and purchase an alternator with an internal regulator and a new "pig tail" (the little thing that plugs onto the two terminals on the side and near the back of the alternator) they are numbered 1 & 2. the pig tail will have a small white wire and a large red wire. The new alternator will also have a large terminal(electrical connection) on the back. It will look like a screw sticking out with a nut on it.
11. Do what it takes to bolt the new alternator into the place of the gen/alt you removed and threw in step 8.
12. Once installed, plug the pig tail onto the terminals mentioned in step 10. attach the large wire from the battery (mentioned in step 9) and the red wire on the pig tail (mentioned in step 10) to the large terminal on the back of the alternator, tighten the nut.
13. Now attach the white wire on the pigtail to the wire identified in steps 4, 5, & 6.
14. Secure all left over wires.
15. Crank her up and you are good to go.

Amp meter should work also. If you have a idot light, i'm not sure.

Shorty

[billydonn]

Originally Posted by tomlamb

I just installed a 1 wire in my truck this weekend. I got it from e-bay and it did resolve a problem I was having with my TPI hesitating (going into open loop I was told) with the AC on because there was not enough amperage. Easy job, all that is needed is to connect the included heavy gage wire to the output post on the back of the new unit and the battery.

It is probably the 120 amp output that solved your TPI voltage problem... not the "one-wire" factor. There still seems to be a lot of confusion here about what a one-wire alternator really is, let alone how they actually work.

[2ndGenRR]

check out this site...tons o' info on electrical in general and one-wire alternators in detail.

http://madelectrical.com/index.shtml

[billydonn]

Originally Posted by 2ndGenRR

check out this site...tons o' info on electrical in general and one-wire alternators in detail.

http://madelectrical.com/index.shtml

Yep. My truck is wired using the "new system" described in those articles by Mark Hamilton. I went to some length to avoid getting a one-wire alternator myself, though everyone seems to want to sell you one and they are easy to wire and will work okay for many people.

[tomlamb]

Originally Posted by billydonn

It is probably the 120 amp output that solved your TPI voltage problem... not the "one-wire" factor. There still seems to be a lot of confusion here about what a one-wire alternator really is, let alone how they actually work.

I would agree, I went with a 1 wire for the price as the guy wass local to me and he had it in stock.

[sixtyfour]

I ordered a one wire before you guys posted about three wire alt...damn! I'll probably just go with the one wire now.

Looking at my alt now, it is the three wire with internal regulator. Anyone know what i would need to do with the 2 extra wires on my 3 wire system?

[Tim64]

I got the one wire from Summit back last fall sometime. It's no big deal, and it didn't require a bunch of wiring. Works great! Kept things charged and going all winter long. I think you'll be happy with it.
Tim

[rickf]

Originally Posted by sixtyfour

I ordered a one wire before you guys posted about three wire alt...damn! I'll probably just go with the one wire now.

Looking at my alt now, it is the three wire with internal regulator. Anyone know what i would need to do with the 2 extra wires on my 3 wire system?

I put a one-wire on my 64 a decade ago.

I mounted the alt itself in the usual way.
I connected the big red wire (that was already on the truck) to where the big red wire goes on the alt.
I zip-tied the remaining two-wire-with-connector to the wire bundle on the fender well.
The voltage regulator is still on the rad support where it always was.

In essence, I connected the one wire that was needed and changed nothing else. It has worked fine for 10+ years.

[Tim64]

That is just how I did mine. The only other thing I did was hook up a volt meter inside since the light would no longer work with the regulator disconected.

[billydonn]

It's really amazing that GM never thought of this one-wire alternator thing for their millions of vehicles! Their electrical engineers must be real dopes.

[Anthony Fremont]

Originally Posted by billydonn

It's really amazing that GM never thought of this one-wire alternator thing for their millions of vehicles! Their electrical engineers must be real dopes.

Actually, they were pretty clever. "One wire" alternators have been around for a long time. They are great in farm equipment and that kind of thing, but they leave a little to be desired in an automobile. They can't turn on a light bulb to tell you when they aren't working. They sense the voltage at the same place in the system that they supply power. This doesn't work ideally in our old trucks, since the electrical system was designed to have the voltage sense point a pretty good distance from the alternator. I've read that you might have to rev them up a little to make them "wake up" upon starting the engine. I'm not saying they're bad or that they don't work, I'm just sayin'......

[billydonn]

Originally Posted by Anthony Fremont

Actually, they were pretty clever. "One wire" alternators have been around for a long time. They are great in farm equipment and that kind of thing, but they leave a little to be desired in an automobile. They can't turn on a light bulb to tell you when they aren't working. They sense the voltage at the same place in the system that they supply power. This doesn't work ideally in our old trucks, since the electrical system was designed to have the voltage sense point a pretty good distance from the alternator. I've read that you might have to rev them up a little to make them "wake up" upon starting the engine. I'm not saying they're bad or that they don't work, I'm just sayin'......

10-4... I believe we are on the same page. I wasn't thinking of a tractor as a vehicle, but ....

[jonzcustomshop]

shorty cox- that was a perfect description, that helped me bypass the regulator and go with the internally regulated alt.
thanks!

now- not to hijack...
but since this one looks like it was figured out...
Can someone help me convert points to hei?
descripion?

[scotts62]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

shorty cox- that was a perfect description, that helped me bypass the regulator and go with the internally regulated alt.
thanks!

now- not to hijack...
but since this one looks like it was figured out...
Can someone help me convert points to hei?
descripion?

MSD thats how

Your just wanting to change distributors? Just about wiring the hei?

[jonzcustomshop]

Just rewiring my old points system to the hei that I have now.

[poorboy]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

Just rewiring my old points system to the hei that I have now.

Just drop in the dist and run a wire from the extra ign terminal on the fuse box to the dist and you're done.

[TimE]

Make sure it is a heavy gauge wire too.

[greg64]

Hey Billy, about the 1 wire and GM engineers thing, there is a reason why they did what they did. There's the idiot light that Anthony mentioned that they got for "free", but there's another reason too. With 1 wire alts, there can't be much of a voltage drop between the alternator and the battery/dash/fuse box (this is because the alt can't compensate for the drop). How do we accomplish this? With a heavy gauge wire, which is what 1 wire systems will recommend. But, for GM, that would mean that they would have to run 8 gauge wire for main power feeds, and that is a lot of copper. Instead, they used puny 12 gauge for the feed, but then ran another, EVEN PUNIER 18 gauge wire in parallel to sense the voltage (one of those 2 extra wires on the 3 wire alt. Now, when there is high current draw and an appreciable voltage drop on the 12 gauge, the sensing wire "notices" and pumps up the alternator voltage to compensate. So, you get 15v at the alt and 14v at the dash which is what is was supposed to be in the first place. So, now GM saved a few bucks in copper wire for every truck, and $2 times 1,000,000 trucks a year = more money then I have in my wallet!

There's the other aspect too, that 1 wire alts need to be "blipped" up to a few thousand RPM before they will self-energize. If you start and idle, you've got nothin.

[jonzcustomshop]

poorboy- on my fuse block there are 2 plugs that say "ign unfused " are those the ones you are talking about?

[rickf]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

poorboy- on my fuse block there are 2 plugs that say "ign unfused " are those the ones you are talking about?

(Not to speak for poorboy, but...) Yep, that is what I used (with an inline fuse).