Inliners International Forums General Discussion Electrical 1 wire alternator???

Just when I think I'm learning a little something else comes along. I got a 1 wire alternator for the 292 w/ HEI. Did I screw up AGAIN? Is it even going to run it? I just wanted to clean up under the hood a little and seems like I've opened yet another can of worms.

It should, it will take a bit more RPM to get the alternator to "come on" but should be fine once it does.

The only issue I could see is if the alternator wasn't rated for enough amps, lowest "1 wire" street alternator I've seen was 60 amps.

this one's rated 110 amps so should be OK I guess,huh?

Yeah, that should run any street ignition you would want, and 10 more just like it, at the same time.

1 wire may not be the best choice if you have a high current draw at idle, such as:
1. big stereo
2. electric fan
3. headlights-on-daylight local law

I am running an electric fan. I'll put a nice stereo in but not one of those thump-thump-thumpers you can hear the bass a mile away. And it'll just be a summer car (Alaska after all) and it doesn't get dark so probably won't need a lot of headlights. And I figure if it's running it's going to be going down the road and not idling much.

The old generator wiring was designed for 20, 30 amps max, and will not handle 110 amps! It'll be fine when "everything's normal", but if you run the battery low (leave your lights on, etc) and you run the engine at fast-idle to charge it, it will (try to) push 110 amps through that skinny wire and melt your harness.

The alternator will only put out what the load(s) want; if all your loads (ignition, headlamps, stereo, fan, etc) total 5, 10, 15 amps that's all the alternator will put out. Most cooling fans though are 10 amps minimum, many are 30 amps.

Run a FAT wire from the alternator big stud to the battery or solenoid stud... Google up the right gauge wire.

I intentionally ran a very nice small 35 amp Mitsubishi alternator in my ancient car for this very reason. I ran a new #10 wire to the main battery source anyways.

I'm running a #4 wire from my 120 amp to the battery in my plow truck. I run it through a large fuse (in case any of the lead ever finds it's way to ground 125 A fuse IIRC).

I have less than 4' of cable for that, If the battery was further away I would have run the alternator lead to the pos terminal on the solenoid (as Tom J reccomends) and then run a larger lead from there to the battery (#1, 0, or 00 ).

Make sure you upgrade the grounds too, that many amps with stock grounds have been know to fry odd things in search of a ground path (throttle cables, gauge wires, the copper tube on an oil pressure gauge, that one really makes a mess too ).