All or nothing alternator conversion
I am trying to upgrade my 64 Valiant from the old round back alternator to a nippondenso alternator. Specifically, I have a Remy 94616 that in the books goes to a 1991 B150 van. The regulator is a Standard VR128.
I have already bypassed the ammeter. The charge wire is 8 ga and goes through a fuse to the starter relay post. And I should mention that the old alternator was fine, I just wanted to get the output at idle. The phrase if it ain't broke, don't fix it keeps coming to mind.
The first attempt was as follows. I hooked the wires up exactly as the old one, with one field wire grounded to the case. The result of that was a fluctuating or pulsating charge of either 14.6 or 15.x volts. All lights would pulsate and it didn't matter what the rpm was. The alternator sounded very much like a dynamo that they used to have on bikes, whirr whirr whirr whirr. so back on went the old alternator. The anomaly in all of this is that when I first put the old one back, it acted similarly with the pulsating lights, but a slightly lower output. After reading many posts, I cleaned many grounds and added a new one just for the regulator straight to the battery. Then the old one was back to normal (or maybe better with the improved grounding :)).
I tried again this morning. I thought perhaps I wasn't supposed to ground the second field wire, but give it ignition on voltage instead. Now I get zero charge. Constant 12.x volts at the battery and at the charge wire connection regardless of rpm.
In between attempts, I took the alternator to the oreillys and had it tested. was "good as new" fwtw. I manually tested the diodes and they are reading ok. I've looked at and read so many posts on this that my eyes are getting blurry. I'm totally stumped.
I would like clarification on whether the second field terminal on the alternator should be grounded or not. I'm not sure what the determining factor is on that. Does it matter which terminal is grounded if that is the way I need to go?
I know I'm missing something. Help please.
