About to get the car out and have been having this gremlin with the charging system. I had purchaced a new alternator last year, a new voltage regulator last year and still had issues. I have since replaced the wiring harness going into the voltage regulator and yet still am running off the battery. So now as I am about to get it out of storage its time to fix this problem. I have since narrowed this issue down to the voltage regulator as I used an old regulator lying around that worked until I started the car a second time lol. I just don't want to deal with this anymore. I want to enjoy the car. I have done my search on the forums and by the looks of it I am going to go with the 1 wire alternator. I can safely remove all the wiring from the voltage reguator without having to wire anything else correct? Just one simple fused wire from the alternator to the solenoid and nothing else? Just makes it sound 2 easy. If I do cheap out and go with a 3g alternator from a 94/95 Mustang I need to hook those wires to the old ones without the regulator?
I have a Summit brand 1-wire alternator and have no problem. You will need to use a volt meter to monitor the system because you can't use the idiot light. And yes it only one wire from the alternator to the battery side of the solenoid.
The "rebuilt" alternator I purchased has a bad diode so the wife is letting me buy the one wire cause she wants to enjoy the car as well. Especially with the new 306 I put in over the winter and the performance shop is on the way to our date night tonight so double bonus.
I use 1 wire alternators on several cars including the maverick. yup, 1 wire with a fusible link to the +side of the batt (I ran mine to the starter solenoid) I take my old alternators to a rebuild shop and they convert them to 1 wire. costs less this way. check it out, might work for you too.
What size fuse should I be using? Already picked up the alternator its a 100 amp and I have the wire at home just wondering how big/small I should go
If your ignition switch is bad it will make the car run off the battery and act like the alternator isn't even there. So that's another thing to consider checking.
So my little electrical gremlin is moving around some more and I would love nothing more then to poor some water on him. Alternator is now working, charging system was good when the car last ran but now Im getting no spark. I mounted the new ignition box and now it doesn't want to start anymore. At first I was getting no spark then all of sudden it started sparking so I replaced the coil wire back on the distributor it ran for about 45 secs went to test the alternator if it was still charging (it was) and the car just died and now I can't get it started again. I have now also replaced the condenser that was mounted below the voltage regulator. From what I have read online if its not working it can cause a diode problem in the alternator (which I had before) Any thoughts suggestions would be helpful. The wiring harness is all original.
So Squall was my old profile. Can't remember what email address it was attached to. So these gremlin got the better of me enough to punch my car lol. Got it running super strong. Car was awesome for 2 days. Went to drive to my brother in laws place. Car sputtered and died. New gas line from the fuel pump to carb got to hot so vapor lock. No big deal, fixed that. I have gas back to the carb again but again no spark. Checked everything again. No spark so I said screw it and put it back in storage before I got really annoyed again. Didn't wanna look at the car anymore. So there it has sat for another summer. Might take it out next year. Depends on how busy my life is and how inspired I get.
