[jahblah90]

Hello, this is unusual for me because i rarely ever deal with the electrical system. to make a long story short, my old alternator on my 75' elky was on its last limb so my dad gave me an fairly new AC Delco alternator they had on a mild built early 70's GMC pickup (gotta love that man). Put it on, and it fired up fairly easy. At idle, it constantly climbs from 12amps to 14-15amps but with any peddle movement whatsoever, it goes on up. Had it autozone tested and it has been up to as far as 18Amps but usually at 16.5amps of normal driving. I dont feel comfortable with this. Help???

 

[hotrodelco]

You mean Volts?

 

[jahblah90]

yes, volts

 

[hotrodelco]

That's too much. Is it internally regulated? Doesn't really matter, the reg is bad.:beer:

 

[jahblah90]

would the plugs on the back of the alt. labeled 1 & 2 have anything to do with it? i may have them on backwards. i switched them to see and it stayed at 12volts the whole time. both at idle and under stress. so i switched it back in fear of it not charging my battery. what do you think? also, might there be something i did wrong? it looked to be a pretty straight forward swap. the alternator was also pretty new. i also know it is possible that it could have came out of the box bad but im hoping not.

 

[jahblah90]

how would i know if its internally regulated?

 

[hotrodelco]

how would i know if its internally regulated?

Put up a pic.:beer:

 

[gilby]

..here ya go...:beer:

...The "Ind Light" wire might be brown (pos. 1) and the "Battery/hornrelay" wire is red (pos.2)..The folling daigram is for a 4th gen. Elky....

..hope this helps ya...:beer:
:beer:

 

[jahblah90]

By jahblah90 at 2012-08-18

By jahblah90 at 2012-08-18

 

[jahblah90]

..here ya go...:beer:

http://www.elcaminocentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3197&stc=1&d=1345344870

...The "Ind Light" wire might be brown (pos. 1) and the "Battery/hornrelay" wire is red (pos.2)..The folling daigram is for a 4th gen. Elky....

http://www.elcaminocentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3196&stc=1&d=1345344701

..hope this helps ya...:beer:
:beer:

THANKS!!!! i understand the first picture very well but extremely lost in the second. i never understood the ink blot looking diagrams. reminds me of a building evacuation plan.

 

[TrannyMike]

I think 72 is the last year any El Camino had an external voltage regulator. You should have an internal regulator in your alternator. That should run at around 13 volts. :beer:

 

[jahblah90]

im not sure of the exact year gmc the alternator came out of but i know early 70's. i got the alt. wires out the truck and spiced them in. so maybe it did have an external thing. what am i looking for to tell if it does or did?

 

[gilby]

THANKS!!!! i understand the first picture very well but extremely lost in the second. i never understood the ink blot looking diagrams. reminds me of a building evacuation plan.

..Great..use the first picture..:beer::beer:

 

[TrannyMike]

im not sure of the exact year gmc the alternator came out of but i know early 70's. i got the alt. wires out the truck and spiced them in. so maybe it did have an external thing. what am i looking for to tell if it does or did?

If I were you I'd buy the alternator made for the car. If you're tight on bucks get a re-manufactured one. :beer:

 

[gilby]

im not sure of the exact year gmc the alternator came out of but i know early 70's. i got the alt. wires out the truck and spiced them in. so maybe it did have an external thing. what am i looking for to tell if it does or did?

..it will look like this...

.. this is what you have..

..this is what you need...

..This is just to show you where the connectors goes and differnt clocking with the connector..:beer:
:beer:

 

[Bryan59EC]

That is an early 70s alternator-----not what you want to use on a 75.

Pretty sure both of my 73 Chevelles are internal regulated alternators.
I'll double check in the morning.

 

[jahblah90]

..it will look like this...

http://www.elcaminocentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3198&stc=1&d=1345347450
..I think this is what you have..
:beer:

THATS MY ALTERNATOR!!!! great, so i must look for an external regulator. i will return to this truck possibly tomorrow to look for this regulator. idk what it looks like lol but ill just grab whatever looks like it was hooked to the alt.

 

[TrannyMike]

Way to go Gilby! That makes the choice easy. My 85 has the plug on the side not the back. And of course an 85 is internally regulated. :beer:

 

[jahblah90]

Hey Gilby, only one of your pictures comes up. I cannot view the picture of the regulator (the bottom 2 pictures). is it just my computer?? and my 75 had a rear plug alt. idk if its the original but it was on the elky when i got it. i will post pics of it tomorrow to show.

 

[jahblah90]

my original elky alt's rear prongs are horizontal while the new one, just like pictured in Gilby's post, has vertical prongs. thats why i had to splice the wires with it.