Cleaning up some old wiring in my 54. it 's basically stock but has a 12V conversion and an alternator. Question is: is there supposed to be a wire going from the "BATT" terminal of the ignition switch to the little board on the firewall that is a power point for other stuff? There was one hooked up and it caused stuff like the turn signals to work without having the key turned on at all. Didn't seem right to me but I don't know. Do others have power to turn signals with key off? Thanks, Scott
Thanks. The accessory runs to the block too. I will remove that wire that keeps the junction block always hot.
More questions... So it looks like whoever did this 12V conversion did some weird stuff. The alternator is the 1 wire type with a DA plug. The one red wire from the plug loops around and hooks to where the big wire hooks to. The other is just sitting there, not hooked to anything. I thought that one was supposed to go somewhere to sense the load or something. This thing has worked this way for the last couple years and I want it right but don't want to cause more problems than I have to. So, where should I run this wire from the DA? Am I opening pandora's box?
What you need to do is post what type of alternator it is. I know that 10 and 12 Si type delco alternators have two wires at the plug. One is a sense wire that should go to the + battery post or something wired to it nearby the battery. The other wire is the field excitation wire and normally it goes thru the charge idiot light then to the ignition switch. Wiring it to the big terminal on back of alternator makes a 1 wire alternator. I am not a big fan of one wire alternators and prefer wiring as it is suppose to be. One more thing, if you have your ammeter still wired into the circuit you may want to put a shunt resistor across the terminals because most old ammeters were only good up to 30 amps. The alternator can produce 60 or more amps when charging a low battery.
sure wish I could figure out how to pull a pic from one of my folddrs. theres a pic of the alternator in there. will keep trying. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Image by Scott F. posted Jul 1, 2014 at 9:22 PM Pic of my alternator. Where is the white wire supposed to go?
the white wire should normally go to a charge indicator light or to the run circuit of the ignition switch with a resistor in line. Resistor keeps the alternator from backfeeding voltage to the coil that will make the motor keep running with the switch off. The alternator will still charge with this wire unhooked but you will have to rev it up some before it kicks in.
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