A few weeks ago me and my wife took the 55 Pontiac for a little drive. About an hour into the drive the car just died, no power at all. After getting jumped a few times I realized that it wasn't charging. I installed a new generator this morning but its still doing the same thing. It'll only run if theres a charge on the battery and dies as soon as I unhook the battery. What am I missing?
If you are running the original generator and regulator set-up you may have a regulator issue. It's the 3 wire device probably on the left inner fender well. You may have to replace it or re-polarize it. I can't remember the instructions for polarizing it but it involves shorting 2 of the terminals together.
Why not replace it with an alternator? I had a similar issue with mine, and finally got rid of the generator altogether. Found a company that makes great bolt on alternator replacements for these cars: http://www.qualitypowerauto.com/ite...put-Alternator-internal-voltage-regulator.htm See my thread when I was figuring all this out: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...316-v8-convert-to-electronic-ignition.722711/