"one wire" alternator getting hot

here we go... 65 belair 350/350 swap, went to a one wire alternator. for whatever reason i put my hand on the alt and noticed it was fairly warm. I have a 6 gauge wire from the alt to the battery. at the top of the alternator there is a two terminal connector white and red wires. i thought they were both suposed to go the stud on the back of the alternator? i dont care about a volatge gauge or the dummy light. i tried searching for some schematics im thinking i prolly should not have hooked the white wire up at all? i also have the wire going to the original volatage regulator (/horn relay?) hooked up the the stud on the alt. everything works just fine except the warm alternator. any idea? think its from the white wire being hooked up?

 

A one wire alternator with three wires?!?!

 

I have the same stye of "one wire" alt. Jumper wire on mine is from the terminal (red) farthest away from the stud. Have had no problems in 10 years. The terminal closest has nothing connected. I don't have a voltmeter or ammeter, I just check it every now and then with my multimeter.

This is a neat trick to "convert a 3-wire alt to a 1-wire alt". Only issue is it doesn't charge as good at idle but it makes up for it when you're running down the road. It's never left me with a dead battery.

 

The wiring kit I just installed in my 40 pickup project has a bypass circuit wire that runs from the power post on the one wire alternator to the starter power post. It was recomended if the one wire alternator was over 80amp. The kit also came with a excitor wire (white) but not needed with a one wire system.

 

If the ign terminal on the side of the alt (white wire) has battery power instead of ign power the alternator will be on all the time making it warm. It would also draw the battery down. If its truly a one wire alt eliminate the other 2 wires.

 

the only reason that it would get hot like that is if it is full fielding the alternator and it is charging max capacity all the time. just like it would as if you had the battery cable unhooked. that makes them full field and is very hard on the alternator.

 

Thanks for the replies so far guys. I should add the alt is hot even though the car was not running. I'm thinking the white wire is supposed to be for a voltage gauge and should be Key on only?

 

Run the red wire to Ign on wire, that only starts the alt when the ignition is on. I have one just like yours.

 

Here is now the alternator is supposed to be hooked up. Ternimal 2 is hooked up to the big lug on the alternator and Terminal 1 is hooked up to the ignition curcuit with an idiot light or similar resistor in the curcuit. A diode can be used too. Anything to keep the voltage from back feeding to the coil and keeping the motor running after the switch is turned off.