Ian,
Patrick is right, but when I read about the voltage difference between the
battery and the alternator I wondered what gauge wire you ran from the
alternator
to the battery. If it is too small you could have a substantial voltage drop on
that wire, which will show up as heat along the length of the wire.
I just changed engines in my car. I added heavy braided straps around the motor
mounts to form the body to engine block ground connection. It should provide me
with a very reliable ground connection to the frame of the car. I am also
checking the frame to body ground connections to make sure they are just as
reliable.
Tom
69 2000
Portland, Oregon
"Patrick J. Horne" wrote:
> Ian,
>
> With the way you have the alternator connected I believe that for the most
> part everything is as it should be. The reason that your ammeter is
> reading the way it is is that you relocated the connection from the
> alternator to the battery. Before you connected the new alternator the
> stud on the alternator connected to the white wire, which is connected to
> one side of the ammeter. The opposite side of the ammeter connects to the
> battery. Now the ammeter connects to the same side of the ammeter as the
> battery. All the loads on the car are connected to the other side of the
> ammeter. In the old configuration the only current that flowed through the
> ammeter was what went to or from the battery because the loads were on the
> same side of the ammeter as the alternator. Does this make sense?
>
> One way to fix this problem is to connect the white wire that you taped
> off to the stud on the back of the alternator. Leave the wire that goes
> directly to the battery there also. The readings on the ammeter will show
> a bit of charge or discharge, but won't have the range that it had before.
> This is alright.
>
> The one thing that concerns me is that you state that you read over 16V
> between the alternator output and the engine block. This is not correct.
> The reading should be the same as what you read across the battery, 13.6V.
> I believe that you either have a bad engine ground strap, the strap is
> missing, or some how your reading was in error. Give it another check.
>
> If your recheck shows the same readings please let us know how the battery
> is grounded. Is it conneted directly to the engine block, or to the body?
> Is there a heavy wire between the engine and frame?
>
> Peace,
> Pat
>
> - Support Habitat for Humanity, A "hand up", not a "hand out" -
>
> Pat Horne, Network Manager, Shop Supervisor, Future planner, CS Dept,
> University of Texas, 1 Texas Longhorns, #C0500,Austin, Tx. 78712 USA
> voice (512)471-9730, fax (512)471-8885, horne@cs.utexas.edu
>
> On Mon, 12 Aug 2002, ian miller wrote:
>
> > As I mentioned earlier today my car is finally back on the road, but it
> > still has a few problems which perplex me. Todays problem for the roadster
> > knowledge collective is a charging one. I have been struggling wiht the GM
> > 1 wire conversion for a while now. The 1 wire alternator I bought has 2
> > wires and a post. I ran the red wire to the post then a wire from the post
> > to the battery via a inline fuse. the white wire I just taped off. Car not
> > running I read 12.8 volts across the battery on my $15 multiguage. Car
> > running I read 13.8 across the battery and 16.4 between the large post on
> > the alternator and the engine block. Sounds good right! Well my amp guage
> > reads about -2 amps with nothing on and pegs at -30 with my electric fan,
> > lights and driving lights on. This equates to approximately 45 minutes of
> > driving time with only the electric fan. What is going on?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Ian Miller
> > 66 1600 (stroked)
> >
> >
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