GM Style 1 wire alternator & ammeter gauge hook-up

[johnny-d]

Does anyone have some experience with this configuration that they are willing to share? Or . . . advice on how to set this up, where the wires should run & attach to the existing harness & how much of the old harness I can now remove?

[Chryco Psycho]

The GM alt has an internal regulator , so all you need is the large wire to connect to the alt , the 2 smaller feild wires & the regulator is no longer used & could be removed , the ammeter remainns hooked up as it was from the factory

[johnny-d]

O.K. ~ I unraveled the rats nest of wiring & splices that was the charging system & have traced the wires back to where they plug into the fuse block. Near as I can tell (and I'm looking for confirmation here) the brown Coil hot wire, Black Alternator charging wire & a single blue field wire join the drivers side of the block here ~ is this correct? I am assuming that I can cut the blue field wire out of the harness at this point & run the black charging wire to the post on the back of the alternator. Since my 60K volt coil has an external ballast resistor can I remove the original one from the harness & run the brown hot wire straight to the aftermarket resistor as well?

Probably simple questions but I appreciate your answers even if it is just confirmation.

[1973challenger360]

with the GM alternator , ford fuel injection, gm hei ignition were in bussiness to make a Bastar$ car      eekbig nono        welcome to the future

[Chryco Psycho]

the blue wire is a 12 v switched power source which can be used ofr electric choke or any other reason , you will have a blue wireto  1 side of the ballast to run the ign in the run position , the brown wire to the ballast is the start position & bypasses the ballast for easier starting

[johnny-d]

 newsad O.K., I'm a little lost. Where were the alternator field wires supposed to have come from?

[Grancoupe]

I got sick of the old Chrysler charging system myself. I replaced the alternator with a 1 wire 100amp GM unit. It fit better than the original and cleaned up a bunch of wires. The only thing is that if its not driven daily you will need to set up a disconnect since the 1 wire design stays live without that extra terminal on a true GM system. You can set up a relay to cut off the alternator when the car isnt running or just start it up every day. The alternator will drain the battery completely in a week or so depending on conditions.

[johnny-d]

Thats really good to know! Can you elaborate on your wiring hook-up & a picture is worth a thousand words too! I have my alternator mounted to the left side of the front of the motor (like a typical GM BB set up) but I haven't actually done the splicing yet so any info you can provide based on your own first hand experience will be beneficial and appreciated.

Johnny-D

[Grancoupe]

Sorrry It took me a while to respond. Ive been away for a little while. When I used to drag race the car I rellocated the battery in the trunk. One of the rules to race is if you have the battery in the trunk you need a cut off switch. So I wired the alternator to the switched side of the cut off switch. The wire size I used is 10 gauge and the cut off switch is the one rated for 100A or something like that. It was rated about the same as the alternator output so I wasnt worried about cooking the switch. When I kill the switch it kills the alternator supply and seperates it form the battery preventing it from killing the battery. Ill try to get a few photos for reference if your interested.

[johnny-d]

 :worthless: Anything you can provide will be appreciated.

[Grancoupe]

I saw an alternator that MSD now makes that can output either 120A or something like 160A, depending on how much juice you need. It comes with a bunch of hardware mounting brackets and such. Thing goes for about 240 Bucks! Thought it was just worth mentioning. Will ge some pics for you. :thumbs:

[HemiDog]

Here is a link to the alternator Gran was talking about.

http://www.msdignition.com/1aps.htm

[BB72Chally]

I dont mean to butt in...but I will anyway . I am also wanting to switch to a single wire alternator. Read the link where the guy modifies the fuse box and all that. What my question pertains to the amperage range of the rallye ammeter. If I go with one of the single wire alternators that Summit sells, do I have to limit myself to the 55-60 amp range, or would it be ok to use the 75 amp Powermaster?  :dontknow: