I first used a one wire GM alternator on a 50 Chevy truck.That was about 6 years ago and it was still operating as new after many miles when sold last month. A few weeks ago I bought a 25 dollar one wire GM conversion kit on Ebay.Took two discarded GM alternators off my junk pile. One was an early model using a separate regulator,the other a later model.Simple ohm metering testing,picked the best parts,installed the kit according to the directions.Alternator works perfect on an old Jeep. Oh,both alternators start charging when the engine is started,no need to rev it.
I notice a lot of the same rebuttals between 1 wire and 3 wire. Ill add a little something here that you 1 wire guys might want to know why a 3 wire is better. simple measure that a 1 wire will only read battery voltage and adjust its regulator to put out 13 or 13.5 and thats about it. a 3 wire will put out in the numbers of 14.5 to 15 volts. Believe it or not but those 2 volt differences will make a hell of a difference in any electrical component in your car.. Lights, Stereo's, coils, anything that receives and depends on solid voltages.
It's funny to hear some of you say a "one wire can't work", and yet there are so many of us telling you we use them and they do work fine. My 27 has had one for the past 10 years and I only replaced it with a new one two years ago because the chrome was getting a little shabby looking. My 23 had one for the 3 years I owned it, and both of my Son's are running one wires and their batteries are always fully charged. In addition, more and more marine engines like Mercruiser, Volvo, and OMC are going to one wires . I ran a marine one wire alternator on my 5.0 powered Jeep and it was my daily driver for 5 years, with zero problems. Neither side is going to convince the other side on this one, so all we can do it report what our personal experiences have been with them . Don
Not true for me. Both the alternators in two different vehicles keep a steady 14.5 from idle on up. There may be issues with with one wire alternators in some situations.They don't come original on newer vehicles for whatever reasons.But they work just fine for many of us.
I have a part number ay my shop( used to know the vehicle), it is for a mid 70's GM vehicle(next time I'll have them to look up the application), I and many friends have used this part # many times- never a problem, and it is a ONE WIRE off of the shelf, has the plug in-plugged. I have always had luck using a jumper wire from the plug as well, although just once or twice, out of 20 times it wouldn't operate correctly (non- SE regulator?) .......Just sayin.
I'm afraid I'll disagree with your theory that a one wire will only charge at the battery's voltage. I've discharged a battery from heavy cranking, and tested it for static voltage, and it was sitting at 12.3 volts, but when I started the car the alternator charged at 14.5 v. I've also got voltage gauges on all three of my cars with 1 wire alternators and they all read over 14v. when running. I've never seen any of them read less than 14vdc.
I must be gettin old One wire .........hmmm i never had one set-up that way.Guess it was easier to do it the normal way. I hid the wires.....you can't see them much anyway jmo lot of to-do bout nothin
1-wires are used all the time as generator replacements on old tractors, welders, trucks etc., are simple to hook up, and work very well. Many complete kits are available for the old N Ford tractors and such. I have 3 Lincoln SA200 welders with flathead Continental gassers and all 3 have 1-wire alt conversions. There's also a 24V unit, I have one on my 680 Case backhoe. Most of this stuff doesn't rev very high and is usually governed, so the pulleys are geared to a speed that will excite the unit at low idle, and since the rigs don't usually go much over 2000 rpm, they're still not spinning the alt that fast when wide open. One set up like this works very well for your average goldchainer running a bellybutton crate engine with a potato cam who's never gonna stick his foot in it and rev it up anyway, but has a stereo and A/C to power. Many times you'll see an old tractor that still has all the original gennie wiring and regulator attached with the wiring taped up, and a single new wire replacing it all
The Jalopy Journal
