Gentlemen (and ladies) I've done a few cars over the years, and converted a lot of generators to internally regulated alternators, and 6VDC to 12VDC conversions, but I almost always have to do a lot of re-wiring in the process so this immediate problem has never come up, at least that I remember. I'm resurrecting one of my old daily's with a fresh 292 I6 and 700R4. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/700r4-in-a-62-chevy-truck.677173/. The project got stalled by a little re-model at home but I'm back at it now and would like to hear if anyone has tried what I just did last night before I put a battery to it. The under hood harness on my truck was still in great original condition and after a lot of reading I decided to try and use the generator harness w/ voltage regulator to hook up the GM 10SI alternator I added. After a lot of reading I can't find a reason this shouldn't work. I jumpered the Battery and Armature terminals on the regulator, hooked the blue field excitation wire to terminal 1 on the 10SI and bonded terminal 2 to the Battery lug on the 10SI. I left the "BATT" gage input wire for the full instrument dash on the Armature terminal and left everything else wired as from the factory. Right after starting if the battery voltage is low the regulator should power the field excitation, and as far as I can tell, the charge meter in the dash is just a volt meter centered at 12.7 volts so it should still work. I added a 10 ohm resistor to the excitation wire, just in case the regulator contacts don't open like I think they do when the key is off. Has anyone on here tried this? What caught fire first???????????
Given the number of views and lack of response I figured this was either a new idea (highly unlikely as I've never had one before) or a bad idea (much more likely given my history) so I'm just going to try it. just need to wrap up the exhaust and it's "off to the races"!
Yea, that's one of the references I used for the details, they just don't come right out and say what I did to the external voltage regulator is right or wrong. I'm sure is sounds silly, but I like the way it looks from the factory, and I have plenty 10SI alternators and no money to buy one of those fancy generator conversions.
Why do you still want to keep using a stock regulator to control voltage? It's not needed since the alternator has a built in voltage regulator.
I'm a bit leary writing a response as I don't know the original wiring for your vehicle, but if the blue exciter is a true straight ignition feed, then it should work. I used to use the horn relays as a terminal buss for the Battery and #2 wires, and run the ALT/GEN light feed to #1 terminal. Remove or leave the original regulator for that original "look", but never tried to use it. I'm not sure what the regulator is doing to your system the way it's hooked now.(back to not knowing your original schematic)
I read a little more about the external regulator operation and I may not have the right combination to pull in the contacts for field excitation. The trigger for this function appears to be voltage bias between the Battery and Armature inputs which I have jumpered together. If this is actually the case then I'll need to rev the engine to a speed that allows the 10SI to self-excite like an aftermarket "one wire" operation. If anyone is interested I'll let you know how it turns out.
The Jalopy Journal
