I did an alternator conversion with some pluses and some minuses.
My main symptom was a wildly flicking ammeter needle, usually pinning to the
plus side every second or so.
replaced the gen, no change, replaced the VR, no change.
So I had an alt on my spare engine which offered several advantages, to wit:
it more than likely ran when parked, it had the right size (wide) pulley, and
the mounting bracket had been altered to accomodate the larger-bodied
alternator with a bit ground off on the outside edge, and bushed-in to
accomodate the smaller diameter mounting at the front side, and a tubular
spacer to carry the long 8" or so bolt. It is marked "8H16 12V NEG"
It was evidently a gm-delco with "batt" "gnd" posts and "R" and "F"
(left-right) blade connectors in a recess meant for a dual socket doohickey.
BTW it was a bear to get in, what with the exhaust manifold on one side and
the main chassis tube on the other. (Before I work on this car I always prick
my index finger and smear a little blood on the bulkhead below the commission
plate to propitiate the gods and avoid real bloodshed -- are LBCs a religion
or what?)
The real symptom was not so much the voltage variation, but also I have a
Crane XR-700 in the loop, and on accelerating from anywhere below 2500 rpm's
causes missing and bucking. Testing with an ignition strobe, clearly it was
not firing at those times, although putting in my spare set of "regular"
points did the same.
After some research, notes from this list over the past 6 or 7 years, etc, I
finally just followed the notes on the VTR site by TR electrician Master Dan.
All worked well. Too well, I suppose, on my test drive last night, all the
ignition misses are gone. Jeez, I've driven this car for years - over 20,000
miles by learning how to baby it . . . anyhow . . . but the voltage seems way
high. First the red ignition light comes on at idle, gets alarmingly bright an
goes out at 2000 or so rpms- for a time or two, and then just burns out.
Then later when I switched on the Hi-beams, they popped out, I'm still
checking whether it was the filaments or a connection. And the ammeter now
seems to function more like a voltmeter, it just pins on the plus side at
anything over 13 or 14 hundred revs.
Just checking -- the "R" is terminal "1" and "F" is "2" - right??
Per a post by Randall, I wired F or 2 to the battery side of the solenoid
here's what he said:
======================
"2" is the sense input. The system will work fine if you just wire this to
the
BATT terminal at the alternator, however I prefer to connect it to the hot
terminal on the starter solenoid. That way it can compensate for any voltage
drop through the charging circuit (including the ammeter). That's exactly
why
GM put it there, so they could use smaller gauge wire in the charging circuit
but still get accurate voltage regulation even at high output currents.
Jumpering it to the BATT terminal will limit battery charging to some extent,
because the voltage drop in the wires makes the battery "look" more fully
charged than it really is.
=======================
I also connected a #12 wire from ground to a ground post (right between the VR
and the fuse block on my car)
Maybe the filaments are just so used to Sir Lucas' "off, dim, smoke" and they
are so old that they are being pushed that little bit more that burns them
out.
So - any thoughts ??
January
66 TR4A CTC 74217 LO
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