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one wire alternator

Posted By: Anonymous

one wire alternator - 08/04/09 12:02 AM

can some one tell me how and what i need to do to hook up a one wire alternator into my 66 belvedereII with a big block its a 140 amp alternator and ive got electronic ignition
thanks cliff
Posted By: AndyF

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 12:31 AM

Hook the one wire up to the hot stud on the starter relay so it can charge the batt in the shortest possible path. The one wire alternators don't really work all that great on a street driven car so you'll want to stay on top of it with a voltmeter.
Posted By: 440challenger

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 02:03 AM

I ran a 14 gauge wire to the trunk mounted battery with an inline maxi fuse. Why is it better to hook it to the start relay?
Posted By: west

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 02:29 AM

Quote:

I ran a 14 gauge wire to the trunk mounted battery with an inline maxi fuse. Why is it better to hook it to the start relay?


I have been running mine on the street for years this way
Posted By: GTXKen

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 02:30 AM

Quote:

I ran a 14 gauge wire to the trunk mounted battery with an inline maxi fuse. Why is it better to hook it to the start relay?



There is no problem with running it back to the trunk but you better have something bigger than a 14, thats smaller than speaker wire, you should be using a 6 or 8 and instead of a fuse you should use a fusable link

Posted By: west

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 02:47 AM





There is no problem with running it back to the trunk but you better have something bigger than a 14, thats smaller than speaker wire, you should be using a 6 or 8


I didn't catch that
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 02:49 AM

Quote:

I ran a 14 gauge wire to the trunk mounted battery with an inline maxi fuse. Why is it better to hook it to the start relay?



Why would you run a separate wire to the trunk when you already have a nice big fat battery cable going back there, and of all things, one that small?

The MAIN LOAD after initial start and after initial battery recharge is the LOADS IN THE CAR like the AC, rad fan, whatever, not the battery. It's important to have the proper regulated system voltage UP FRONT not dropped through a huge long cable back and forth from the trunk.
Posted By: AndyF

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 03:53 AM

Quote:

I ran a 14 gauge wire to the trunk mounted battery with an inline maxi fuse. Why is it better to hook it to the start relay?



Sounds like a good way to start a fire.
Posted By: Stanton

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 04:09 AM

Does the single-wire alternator still need a voltage regulator ???
Posted By: west

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 04:28 AM

no,it's built in
Posted By: Dodgem

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 01:21 PM

Quote:

Quote:

I ran a 14 gauge wire to the trunk mounted battery with an inline maxi fuse. Why is it better to hook it to the start relay?



There is no problem with running it back to the trunk but you better have something bigger than a 14, thats smaller than speaker wire, you should be using a 6 or 8 and instead of a fuse you should use a fusable link





Speaker wire is right! 140 amp minimum doubled 10
but should be 6 or 4.
and on a race car you must have it isolated from the car by the cut off switch so it allows car to shut off when power switch is turned off
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 11:17 PM

what bout my balis resistor and my external regulator being as this one is internally regulated how do i by pass them or dont i need to
Posted By: 440challenger

Re: one wire alternator - 08/04/09 11:34 PM

Ok well i checked the wire and its 10 gauge not 14 but i will still get a thicker wire and go to the starter relay lug instead. I have the battery and msd hooked to it now, how much stuff can you have on that one lug before its considered overloaded?
Posted By: Stanton

Re: one wire alternator - 08/05/09 03:17 AM

The lug is simply that - a lug. The weak links would be the connectors or wires themselves.
Posted By: GTXKen

Re: one wire alternator - 08/05/09 01:18 PM

Quote:

Ok well i checked the wire and its 10 gauge not 14 but i will still get a thicker wire and go to the starter relay lug instead. I have the battery and msd hooked to it now, how much stuff can you have on that one lug before its considered overloaded?



Per MSD the MSD box should not be hooked up directly to the Alt output
Posted By: OLD318

Re: one wire alternator - 08/05/09 06:30 PM

Quote:

The one wire alternators don't really work all that great on a street driven car so you'll want to stay on top of it with a voltmeter.




I'm lost,
Why would'nt a one wire, internally regulated
alternator work good on a street car?

I would bypass the full flow amp guage on the dash per www.madelectrical.com writeup,
and I would definitely run at least an 8 guage wire from the alt to the stud on the starter relay.

But other than those two wiring considerations,
why wouldnt they work?
Am I missing something?
Posted By: furious70

Re: one wire alternator - 08/05/09 06:47 PM

the argument goes that the 1 wire doesn't 'sense' voltage in the correct place, hence you'll actually be running low voltage to most accessories and your alt won't 'see' it.
I have mine wired via 2g to the starter post and draw power for the amp, efi ecu, and fuel pump relay from the same post. When wired this way I don't see any problem. If you wire your 1 wire the old 'tractor style' with the charge wire straight to the battery, then you can potentially have enough voltage drop through the harness that your stuff is running low voltage.
Posted By: Posest

Re: one wire alternator - 08/05/09 09:26 PM

Mine is wired to the battery in the bed of my Dakota. This set up seems to work great for charging. I have electric fan, fuel pump, MSD , and all of the other electrical items a street legal vehicle needs. This way I can shut off the master disconnect and kill the engine. This is the way I was shown so I am legal to race. I still drive on the street and use the shut off when parked. No chance of an electrical fire with the battery disconnected.
Posted By: OLD318

Re: one wire alternator - 08/05/09 09:38 PM

Quote:

the argument goes that the 1 wire doesn't 'sense' voltage in the correct place, hence you'll actually be running low voltage to most accessories and your alt won't 'see' it.





I thought that was only a problem if the 1 wire
alternator was connected directly to the battery terminal. If you do the full flow amp guage bypass (per MAD Electrical writeup) and wire the
alternator to the stud on the starter relay this should not be a problem... at least that's how I
understood it...

See www.madelectrical.com for the discussion of this....
Posted By: furious70

Re: one wire alternator - 08/05/09 09:46 PM

yes old318, that's what I'm saying. Though MAD tries to sell their 3 wire kits rather than tell you how to correctly wire a 1 wire I thought.

I would think that Dak would have a voltage drop to the fans, would be interesting to test with a multimeter.
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