I'm looking at different options, 1 wire and 3 wire... One alt is a 100 amp 3 wire from NPD and my question is do I upgrade the voltage regulator or does the stock regulator work ? I can't find any info one way or another... While on the subject, where is the proper place to hook my voltage gage ? Right now I have it running on my ad on fuse block... the way it's hooked up the gage reads in the high 12 volt range but at the battery the reading is closer to 14 volts when the car is running...
The only way to get a accurate voltage reading is from the battery, or the output of alt that connects to battery... In the real world, attaching to solenoid is close enough... IF I were buying new(which I'm not), I'd use a one wire alt and forget the alt light... I'll be using a 2G on mine that has internal regulator...
I hooked my volt gauge to any switched 12v. It's a gauge to monitor to know if anything is wrong...doesn't matter if it reads 10 volts or 15 volts as long as it reads the same number when things are normal. If it reads something different then things are not normal.
150 amp 3G 1-wire here. I did extend and move the sense wire from the alternator output terminal to the battery + terminal to eliminate the voltage drop in the charge and battery cables. Same as Jeff, my voltmeter just connects to switched 12V under the dash that supplies the other gauges.
Why do u need a sense wire on a 1 wire alt? I just have a 4gauge to the solenoid. The wire harness was eliminated altogether; I just plugged the sense wire and taped it off.
if you move the sensing wire from alternator to a power source under the dash, the alternator will put out higher voltage to make up for voltage drops through the system. this will be observable in headlight brightness among other things. i did this on my car and the system voltage increased over a volt. the higher the voltage the lower the amperage draw.
Have you ever verified that??? Didn't think so... With higher voltage, the lights will be no doubt be brighter, and amperage will be HIGHER... Current does go up when voltage is low to a struggling motor manly because it's approaching a locked condition... Increase voltage to same motor that's operating under normal conditions and current will be higher... All in ohm's law, can't change physics... Am I saying don't do it??? No just be cautious as anything over 14.5v will be hard on battery...
OK I picked my alternator. A Mr. Amp 130 one wire... It's at my local NPD store, I'll swap out the serpentine pulley for a v belt pully...
Depends on which 1-wire alternator you have. They all have some type of voltage sense circuit to tell the regulator when to turn the alternator on and off. The Delco types have an internal sense built right into the regulator. It's not optimum because it doesn't take into account the voltage drops in all of the system wiring outside of the alternator. Gotta remember, those alternators were originally designed for use on farm tractors where there isn't much more than a few lights, ignition, and battery charging going on. (Although I ran one of those for years without issues, just had to rev it up to start self-regulating.) The Ford 3G "1-wire" like I have has an external sense wire that usually just gets connected to the alternator's output terminal. Like the Delco version, that doesn't compensate for voltage drops in the system wiring beyond the alternator. When my Taurus fan turned on at idle engine speed my system voltage would drop to 12V or lower. So I took the sense wire off of the alternator and put it on the battery + terminal. That's where all of my accessory wiring is connected to. Now my system voltage stays at a constant 14.6 volts. During high loading the alternator is actually putting out more than that now to satisfy the 14.6 volts that the regulator sensor wants at the battery terminal. My car has a lot of lights (Shelby tails), power seats, power windows, Taurus fan, EDIS electronic ignition, stereo, so we need to keep the juice flowing. LOL
yep, 1 wires are really only meant for race upgrades not a street car with lots of accessories. Sure they work for it, but they struggle harder than they should to keep up with demand. When I worked at the place that made alt testers and refurbed alts, 50% of the one-wire returns weren't bad, just needed to be not in an a/c car with a huge stereo system.
