curiser charging

[talkinggoat]

if i wanted to see if the alternator is producing power by using the built in gauge (the one on the instrument cluster) how would i go about doing that?

the gauge has a pos and a neg terminal... do i hook up the alternator to the negative terminal and the positive battery post to the positive on the gauge? or the other way arround?

 

[talkinggoat]

also... there is a forth wire coming out of the voltage regulator. (i have the amp meter type) there are three wires coming out directly with the forth spliced into the plug itself. where should this wire go?

 

[Gumby]

The built in guage is an ammeter. To see if the alternator is producing power all the power from the alternator has to go through it. The power from the B terminal on the alternator goes to the White Light blue wire. the white terminal on the ammeter goes to the fuesable link and to the battery. Hooking it up wrong can cause a fire in the cab of the rig.

Get a voltmeter. It's a LOT safer. Anything over static battery voltage means the alternator is working.

 

[Gumby]

[quote author=talkinggoat link=board=1;threadid=7390;start=msg61714#msg61714 date=1068574239]
also... there is a forth wire coming out of the voltage regulator. (i have the amp meter type) there are three wires coming out directly with the forth spliced into the plug itself. where should this wire go?


[/quote]

My wiring diagram shows three wires. The BY wire at the G terminal goes to the 10A engine fuse, the WG wire at the F terminal goes to the field coil on the alternator and the WB at the E term goes to ground.

 

[talkinggoat]

i had to install a painless wiring harness because someone before me did just this and fried half of the harness. so far, i have a wire running from the b post on the alternator directly to the battery. from there, the cruiser gets it's power. when i placed the volt meter on the battery, it produces charge, but i don't think that i had the amp meter hooked up correctly.

the way that it is set up is as follows...

b term from the alternator to the + term on the battery. + term on the battery to the + term on the amp meter. - term on the amp meter to the fuse block.

what i was tring to do was see if the alternator is charging by placing the stock amp meter in between it and the positive battery post. i don't know, however what post goes where. one way produces a drain, and the other way produces a charge, but i don't know if it's doing this because i have it hooked up wrong... that's why i need to know exactly which wires go where. thanks for the reply, though.

 

[talkinggoat]

ok, guys and gals... here is how it is supposed to work for those of you doing a little rewireing. the amp meter is a low resistance gauge. this means that if you take the amp meter and place it and it alone between the positive terminal and the negative terminal, it will catch fire. you must have a load between it and one of the battery terminals.

in my case, i wanted to see if the alternator is charging. the correct way to do this is to place the negative terminal of the amp meter on the b (output) terminal of the alternator. next, place the positive terminal on the positive side of the battery NOT THE NEGATIVE. if you place them incorrectly you will burn up the cruiser. if any of the wires rapidly become hot, there is a problem somewhere. if they slowly become hot, you need to check how you have them hooked up. they are probably causing resistance, and, keep in mind, the alternator should get kinda hot, so don't take that as a problem. it should not get scorching hot so you can cook an egg on it. if one of the wires gets hot before the alternator does, you have a problem. simply holding one of the wires to a post is one way to get a wire hot. if there are any questions, please let me know.