[Roadsters] Mitty Bad News

[dave]

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you do the three wire GM conversion in an
early car, a Stewart Warner volt gauge looks pretty close to stock, in a
late car, you can adapt the "B" brake warning light to be an alternator
idiot light.  If the brakes fail, your foot will tell you before the
light comes on. And bypass the amp gauge. 

The one wire alt, run direct to the battery on a new wire, bypasses the
amp gauge.  It still works, but is completely inaccurate, shows only the
draw of the body harness.

Even if you stay stock, good idea to go through all the high current
connections and clean them up and reconnect with dielectric grease.
Might be surprised how bad some of them are if you look.

 Funny coincidence, the alternator failed on my 97 Chevy work van last
Thursday.  I happened to be eating lunch in a parking lot and glanced
down at the volt gauge.  It was reading low, almost to the 9 mark.
Being I have a multimeter sitting next to me, I stuck it in the lighter,
10 volts, not going up when the engine revs.  Finished lunch driving the
5 miles back to the shop ac off, radio off etc to drop it off.  Lucky I
noticed it, my next stop was 50 miles away and it probably would have
died halfway there on the New Jersey Turnpike.  You think they could
last more than 180,000 miles! :)


Dave Brisco
ECR
-----Original Message-----
From: John F Sandhoff [mailto:sandhoff at csus.edu] 
 
 
REgarding a dead alternator, the question arose:
> Now - repair original or one-wire... That is the question....

Is you car taxing the original alternator (added lights, big stereo,
whatever)? Do you have other problems (bad wiring, flaky
regulator)? If you have a stock setup, with good wiring and no
special needs, then a set of brushes in the existing alternator
and you're likely ready to go. A one-wire means easier to get a
replacement on the road, it bypasses bad wiring, it gives more
power BUT requires bypassing the ammeter so now you don't know
when that new alt goes south :-)

Yes, yes, there's ways around that. Use a shunt and have the
ammeter pass part of the load. Or use a two-wire and add the idiot
light circuit. But doing it right requires wiring changes. Doing it
wrong risks burning down the car.

-- John
     John F Sandhoff   sandhoff at csus.edu   Sacramento, CA