What do i have to do to put a square back alternator on a 63 Dart?

[63 dart wagon]

I mounted a Later model square back alternator on my 63 Dart. It really liked it but would over charge. I thought maybe it was the old style points regulator? So i test wired the newer style regulator in its place. Still over charged. What changes do i have to make? It showed a nice charge at idle, then would peg the amp gauge at normal driving. Thanks in advance.

 

[1963dartgt]

How did you wire it. One field terminal to the original field side of the reg and ground the other. I just did my 63 gt and it works great.

 

[1963dartgt]

The gauge sits just right before the first line on the gauge on all rpms.

 

[63 dart wagon]

I grounded one field wire to case of alternator. Sitting there at idle it was fine, rev it up or drive it and amp gauge would max. I put it back with old stuff and all works as should. The car would just like to have a bit more power at idle.

 

[1963dartgt]

Hmm thats strange but i ran my ground straight to battery ground. Mine almost pegs the gauge on startup but settles down in about 2 seconds and all is fine after that have an auto parts store test the alt. The first one i bought was bad out of the box no charge at all.

 

[63 dart wagon]

Are you still using the older regulator? I just seen where you can run the other field wire to the power side of the ballast resister.

 

[1963dartgt]

Thats if you are using the newer style reg with the triangle plug. My ballast is gone ive got the HEI ignition and electric dist on my car.

 

[1963dartgt]

This reg

 

[1963dartgt]

If running original style it would be one to field and one to ground.

 

[63 dart wagon]

I thought about trying that style of regulator again, and running the extra field wire. I did have my alternator checked it was said to be good. Thanks for replying and your help.

 

[Rapid Robert]

I thought about trying that style of regulator again, and running the extra field wire. I did have my alternator checked it was said to be good. Thanks for replying and your help.

it is full fielding which will fry the wiring in short order (don't run it like that for more than 5 seconds, just long enough to take a reading to see if you have resolved it) & have all lights/accessories off as 15+ volts will fry em. more info on how you are wired. for a 63 the blue wire to the IGN terminal on reg and green wire from GRN terminal on reg out to alt field terminal (either one on later alt) & ground other alt male field terminal to alt case.

 

[BillGrissom]

I don't see that you stated how you wired the later Vreg (triangle plug). When properly wired, the 1 field terminal it connects to gets shorted to gnd to give full output. If the other field terminal was still grounded, you would then have no field current and no output. In sum, there is no way for both types of Vreg to give full output, if just connecting to the same single field terminal for both.

Get a multimeter and make some voltage measurement at the two field terminals. There are a gazillion posts in this forum that tell you what you should measure, for both types of Vreg. Early Vreg's use "high-side control" and later ones use "low-side control" of the field.

 

[1963dartgt]

I think he was using a older style solid state reg as opposed to the mechanical type.

 

[BillGrissom]

Sounds like both the old mechanical Vreg and newer electronic "old style" Vreg were wired correctly. A common cause of "over-charging" is that the sense wires to Vreg have too much voltage drop from their corresponding battery terminals. All Vreg does is try to hold the voltage difference between its sense wires (gnd to IGN) at 14.3 V by commanding more or less field current from the alternator (mechanical type switches the field on and off). If you have a 1 V drop from BATT+ to IGN (via bulkhead connector 2 passes and key switch), the alternator must output 15.3 V to the battery to make the sense wires read a 14.3 V difference. Similarly, if any voltage drop on the return side (via rusty sheet-metal screws into body). Measure those voltage drops.

The OP is lucky that his 1963 uses big buss-bar feed-thrus in the bulkhead connector for the large ALT and BAT wires (as does 1965). In other cars, those go thru 57 terminals which often cause a voltage drop and heating which melts the plastic, causing multiple problems.