One wire alternator vs the 3 wire one

Do they give door prizes to visitors???

 

yeah- you get to keep the plastic baggie "shoes" covered in sulphuric acid if you want....

 

Whoa Denise....You are so lucky to get all this information before
something drastic happens to "Big Olds". I sure read every single post and
learned a lot from it. Good Luck with getting fixed up before your next
outing

 

Same opinion here. Way better than anything else I've used.

Bob

 

Well I got a happy ending tonight!
Get your minds outta the gutter fella, not THAT kind of happy ending.

Today after work I came home and got Big Olds and drove him up to the auto repair shop up on the corner. Explained everything from start to finish to the owner. He had me pull Big Olds into the bay and hooked up the meter to the Optima battery. Right away he said there was nothing wrong with my alternator, 13 something then 14 something when I reaved the engine. Next thing he said was the battery was junk and if he was me he'd replace it. We chatted a bit more and made plans for me to bring Big Olds back up to him next week and he'd go over Big Olds with a fine tooth comb in preperation for my trip west in a couple of weeks.

So, from the repair shop I headed right over to O'Reilys Auto Parts where the lastest Optima came from 40 days ago. I explained the whole thing from start to finish to the store manager including the fact that I just came from the repair shop and my mechanic checked my whole charging system and said it was fine. I told him I wanted a new battery and I didn't want another Optima one. He came out to look at the battery, felt the side and said no problem.

I drove Big Olds back to my house, pulled the battery out, drove the battery back up to the auto parts store in my daily, got the new regular battery, brought it home and whipped it back into Big Olds, no problem.

I will find out who the big shot is at Optima battery is and I will write an email stating all the facts, especially the way I was treated at the GG event by their Director of Marketing Jimmy Day. I wasn't impressed then and now I'm even more unhappy how I was treated. Without you guys I would have pulled my alternator off, dropped it off at the rebuild shop, paid them to rebuild it then had to put it back on Big Olds.....all for nothing.

Thanks to everyone for all the insight and help not only with my alternator questions but with all the battery advise as well.

 

Keep us posted Denise. The way Optima passed the buck sucks. They once were a very good product. Too bad they took the wrong road.

 

Man, this post started out interesting with zman and 36-3window going at it, really made for some lively reading. Then it all degenerated into boring talk about wires, batteries, and alternators.

 

Denise: Now I can get some sleep! I was very worried about BO and you getting stranded...again. Not that help is ever far away, but it always ruins a trip to have a mechanical delay. I am pleased to see it worked out for you. See you in Salina

 

Happy ending indeed! (not like what YOU'D wish for though )

Since you went there....
Am I still the only person to have had sex in your car Denise?

 

Yep, well you AND her of course........and I still have the bench seat that you two did it on too.
One of these days you just might want it as a momento.

 

perhaps he was indeed alone

 

Funny thing, a company goes to much expense to do the dog and pony at the big shows, then piss's it away with shit attitude.
It takes a ton of good publicity to undue damage and this guy is the director of marketing....

 

whats wrong with a generator?

 

Bummer for him and his company that he didn't know I was on the HAMB.

 

Someone should copy and paste this thread or at least the http and send it to him

 

Ya, he sure did not know who he was dealing with

 

na...waste of time and the damage is done...Optima is continually getting bad raps on many forums.

 

yep, and my pals, Kyle and Stacy Tucker from Detroit Speed quit carrying their batteries because of too many issues. They were very interested in hearing the outcome of this situation.

Consider it done

 

This is not the first time that I have heard about people having bad Optima batteries. Keep us posted on what happens. Give em hell........

 

I have had a 3 wire alt read fine when checking the voltage with just reading the DC voltage, but still not charging properly, I checked it with the AC setting on the voltmeter and found I had some voltage, then used an ocilloscope to check and found a strange output, checcked the diodes and foud a bad one, replaced the diodes=fixed.
And I know that an alt does not give perfect dc output but this was way off. 20 years as an electronics tech.....

 

Long thread, I didnt read it all, but since I do a lot of auto electrical work, I'd chime in.
Don't go one-wire! Why? If you break down away from home, there's not one on the shelf.
One-wires draw from the battery overnight - not too cool.
I make good money off of one-wire alternators, and install lots of traditional 3-wire.

 

Speaking of Alternators(since this is winding down), has any one had any experience with a Ford unit from the late 70's that had a 120 volt ac auxiliary output?