Alright so I have this GM one wire alt, I wanna say its about five years old. Every once in awhile I would have to re-excite the field winding because it periodically stopped putting out voltage. I did this say maybe 5-10 times since I've had it. Well I can't get it to re-excite now, but if I run a 12v wire to the field winding it will put out. Now this is where I'm running into more problems, I had hooked the field winding up to the ignition switch but kept blowing ignition switch fuses, sometimes right away, sometimes after going several miles, but she would blow. I tried up to a 30 amp and she blew too. Thought maybe between everything on the ignition switch, plus the field winding, it was just too much. So I bought a relay, wired it up so the field winding would be on its own circuit and fuse and activated by the ignition switch, but still even on its own circuit it blew the 20 amp fuse I started off with. I checked the field winding for a short to ground and didn't get anything, I'm pretty confused by this whole thing, thought maybe someone could shine some light on the subject.
Sounds like my last girlfriend . . . . every once in a while I had to "re-excite" her . . . as she stopped putting out. LOL
You have a one wire alternator...but you are doing something with the field.... I don't understand. Is it a 3 wire alternator? or how did you get to the field winding?
Alright I think I got it figured out, I opened the alternator up and found a broken wire that goes from the voltage regulator to the bridge rectifier. It didn't look factory, I bought it from Bennett, so either they or their supplier converted it to 1 wire I'm guessing. I put in a new wire, put it back together, spun it up with a drill and she puts out again! I'm also guessing that broken wire may have been bouncing around inside and periodically grounding out which is probably why I was blowing fuses.
My mistake, what I hooked up to was actually the voltage regulator tabs, marked R and F, reference and Field but they're actually bridged together I just learned while taking it apart.
And whatever you were doing to the poor thing to make it that crusty, stop. No electrical components will function in that condition.
Please notice the subsequent responses. No, I'm just one of those "practical" types. Thank you for trying to assess my condition and intentions.
. Just yanking your chain! Seems it worked! Did not mean any offense. I agree on practical. Now, back to the original problem with the alternator. Ben
Yes, that "jumper" wire is used in conjunction with certain regulators, to make them one wire alternators.
https://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS/JEGS-100-Amp-1-Wire-Conversion-Kit/750754/10002/-1 In case you wanted to know part # and how.
I only use internally regulated alternators.....not one wire. Internally regulated are much more reliable
I'd have to try thoroughly cleaning those terminals with some emery cloth, giving them a light coating of dielectric grease and building a new jumper wire with some real weatherproof connectors. Seems like a quick and easy way to verify if that's where the problem is.
She's working pretty good now, I don't see any reason to replace it. its bottom mounted in a T bucket so you know she's gonna get a little wet from time to time. I suppose I could top mount it to negate some puddle splash but either way it still fully exposed to rain. Ill run it til its belly up.
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