Actually, go to your local motorcycle dealer for the long bolt. Bike engines
are fastened to the frame with through bolts--that's not a particularly long
10mm bolt.
A voltmeter will give you more information about the system than an ammeter.
If your battery is nearly toast and the generator is boiling it dry the
ammeter says all is well.
Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Randall
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 10:15 AM
To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: one wire alternator
> Does anyone know where I
> can buy a long metric bolt (About 5 1/2 inches long)?
I did as Jack suggested, and drilled to 7/16" (or was it 3/8" ?). However,
one source of long metric bolts is McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/
P/N 91280A666 looks pretty close. It's a Grade 8.8 bolt, 10mm by 140mm
(which is 5.5 inches).
> Right now, I have the
> alternator anchored to the front plate through one side of the
> original bracket.
I ran that setup for awhile, but found it was really shortening the life of
my fan belts, because the two-point mount was not holding the alternator
square to the rest of the engine. Using a long bolt and a piece of pipe as
a spacer to the rear generator mount worked much better.
> I had to replace my old capacitive discharge positive ground ignition
> box with a MSD ignition.
Is the old +ground CDI for sale ? I'd like to have it for my collection ...
> No instructions came with my alternator, and I assume that one wire
> alternators have built in voltage regulators, and that you do not use
> the old Lucas regulator. You just hook the one wire some place to
> back feed into the battery.
Exactly right.
> Talking to
> the ex-US Air mechanic, he says to replace the alternator with a volt
> meter
That's another alternative that I failed to mention. A standard 2"
voltmeter will fit the original hole in the dash. You'll probably want to
connect it into the ignition circuit so it's not active all the time.
Personally, I prefer ammeters as they tell me more about what's going on,
but the wiring is more complicated.
> This simplifies the problem, but I am still would not out of the
> woods. I will have to study the wiring schematic in the red shop
> manual to see what else runs through the regulator -- ignition switch,
> etc.?
If you're eliminating the ammeter, you can just extend the brown/blue wire
that was on terminal A1 of the control box over to your starter solenoid (or
cutoff
switch) where the brown wire is already. The brown/blue is the power to the
rest of the car (except for the horns & OD, which are powered by the brown
wire).
Randall
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