[Bricklin] Electrical Questions Alternator and Air system

[Greg Schroeder]

I believe I have my alternator problem resolved.  I had the battery checked
when I had the tires rotated and balanced.  The battery failed in the car, so
they removed it and tested it and it passed.  It appeared that the battery
post only had a couple of threads left on them.  I guess these were stock
since the threads was only on the tip.  The new ones I purchased threads went
across the entire bolt.   After that the battery tested OK in the car, but I
still had an issue.  I was thinking that it may be the regulator even though
it was new.  I checked to make sure the regulator had a good ground and ran
another wire from the regulator to another ground to be sure.  When I
unplugged the regulator I notice a couple of the pins from the factory wiring
had backed out of the plug.  I also notice that on one of the pins since it
was backed out that there were only a couple of wires attached to the pin
(this was probably the main issue).  I removed the pins and bent them out so
they would snap securely in place.  I also soldered a new wire to the pin that
only had a few wires, since the original was so short and the pulling on the
connection probably caused the wire to fail.  Now there is slack in the wire
and less stress.  When testing with the voltmeter I am getting 13.7 volts at
the alternator.  The LED light I have connected to my battery is always
showing green(full charge 12.5v).  Car is running great and starts quickly.

>From the feedback that I recieved from Rick and talking with a parts guy that
had a similar issue with his 260Z it sounds like the one wire alternator with
internal regulator is the way to go.  It would resolve the issue of the
external regulator and reduce the number of things that could go wrong when
the system is not working correctly.  The factory alternator appears to be 37
amps, the one I purchased was 55 amps.  With the one wire it would typically
be 110 amps and considerably cheaper than the 110 amp alternator with external
regulator.  With the addition of new electronics, plugs for charging, cell
phone, ipod, etc. the more the better.

The only issue I am having now is floor heat.  I will start another email
thread on that.

Greg 0036