need some direction

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Gnome

Gnome

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ok so my exterior lights and interior lights were really bright...as if i had done the headlight relay mod and good grounds in the dash.... so yesterday i fired my ramcharger up to run to 7-11 during my break and i noticed the electrical burning smell.... since its distinct i knew something was wrong..even though my co-worker did a burnout at a stoplight in front of me on his bike.

well i hopped in and fired it up to go home and headlights and dash lights were really dim. i have tomorrow off so i will stat checking things.

but would like some direction from the electrical gurus here so i dont end up chasing ghosts.

thank in advance for your help.

ps: i did a search and found nothing like this problem. even went through 7 pages of threads to find and found only part problems so i have a general idea of what i need to do
Gary
 
Well, the "bright lights" was probably an overcharging situation that could have been caused by several things.

Start with basic voltage checks:

Battery voltage right at the battery terminals.

If the voltage is below 12.3v with the engine off, put your battery charger on it overnight.

Next, start the engine, and check the voltage at the battery. If it is below 13v, check the voltage at the output stud on the alternator.

Tell us what you find.

B.
 
well i think i know exactly what i did after some research.... :banghead:

the lights have been bright for as long as i have had it.

When i threw the motor in, and since i had a '66 new alternator with a 1 field spade plug in, i'd thought i would use that since i broke the bolt off in the old one...

what i didn't know was the field wire that didn't have a spade for it was grounded through the alternator. so i attached a spade terminal off of the old one to it. well 2 weeks later and it melted the field harness to the voltage regulator... so now i am going to pick up the right alternator (w/2 field spades) and a new voltage regulator and trace down any other wiring that might have shorted.

well lesson learned for sure. i will post pics tomorrow sometime as i start to work on the harness.
 
So you have been overcharging your battery since you put the engine in it?

Hopefully the battery is ok.

B.
 
Check the water level in each battery cell. Over-charging converts H2O to H2 & O2 gas (electrolysis). I think that if you put the later field terminals on an older alternator, it will work fine as a 2-wire alternator. The terminal that is normally grounded to the case is then isolated by the ceramic insulator. You should verify with an ohm-meter. Sound more like something is wrong with your voltage regulator or the wire from the alternator to it is shorted to ground somewhere (applying full field current). Again, check with an ohm-meter.
 
BillGrissom said:
I think that if you put the later field terminals on an older alternator, it will work fine as a 2-wire alternator..
Click to expand...

Nope. Rebuilders used to drill a hole in the old-style case and install an insulated brush, but it was a C.S. way to do so.
 
67Dart273 said:
Also suspect problems with the ammeter/ bulkhead connector wiring. Read through the "mad" articles:

This one first:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

other related stuff:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electrical-tech.shtml
Click to expand...

actually the ammeter and bulkhead connector is already bypassed.

67Dart273 said:
Nope. Rebuilders used to drill a hole in the old-style case and install an insulated brush, but it was a C.S. way to do so.
Click to expand...

i suspect this is the culprit.

i will check the battery out good also.
 
here is a crappy vid done with my droid x sorry some shots are out of focus...im new to this... but you can see what happened and what not to do.LOL now back to fixing it.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxXGwwimKH8"]alternator wiring - YouTube[/ame]
 
Really difficult to tell much from the video. You do have a late model alternator, so if one brush is grounded, it's because the brush holder was broken

The two brushes should show continuity between them, but neither should show continuity to ground
 
67Dart273 said:
Really difficult to tell much from the video. You do have a late model alternator, so if one brush is grounded, it's because the brush holder was broken

The two brushes should show continuity between them, but neither should show continuity to ground
Click to expand...

ok so i now have pics of the alternator that caused the short and the new alternator i just picked up.

OLD -- you can see there is no insulator at field A
2011-10-07_16-48-02_640-1.jpg


NEW-- both fields have an insulator at A & B
2011-10-07_16-47-17_639-1.jpg


can i still use the old one if i add an insulator at field A like B has?

after rewiring the field i went ahead and installed a new alt and regulator as well as a fusible link that blew.

now lights are back to where they were and i get 14.23 volts at the battery running. i get a little over 15v at the alternator.

i checked the battery and topped it off.

i even fixed a few wires at the bulkhead and shrink wrapped them....

now to work out some carb issues. lol
 
Yup, if you can get the right brushholder, you can insulate that

I recently went through THREE sets of brush-holders from NAPA. Two had the wrong brushes --they had screw terminals instead of the flat spade, and at least one had the wrong brush holder/ insulator. These were all three the same part no. I'm not so sure, I might have "mixed" parts out of two sets to get "it right." Yeah, I was pissed.
 
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