Lakota
Rides a rusted horse
Keep this in mind:
The guys from GM and Delco-Remy were not idiots, they new what they were doing when they designed their altenator. There are three wires on an altenator for a reason.
First off, electricity cannot be created, nor distroyed. But it can be altered. It must come from one of the five sources, (heat, light, friction, magnetism or chemical reaction). Altenators work on magnetism, but they must have a voltage source to create the magnetism, (battery). This is as far as I'll go on this, otherwise I'll type for two days and you'll end up with a degree in Electronic Engineering.
In laymans terms, let me explain why a three wire altenator is superior to a one wire altenator:
A standard internally regulated altenator has three wires coming out of it. One is the large gauge red wire that goes directly to the battery, (charge wire). The second is the smaller gauge colored wire, (pin 2-voltage sensor). The third is an equal size wire, (pin 3-sometimes used for indicators or gauges). It's pin 2 of the two wire plug-in that is important here. Pin 2 is connected to the fuse panel, and as you know everything is connected to the fuse panel. Pin 2 is the feed wire for the internal magnetic field that generates electricity. Pin 2 is also the voltage sensor for the altenator. It reads or measures the voltage at the fuse panel. If it's low (below 12V), it triggers the altenator into a charge mode. When the voltage at the fuse panel is brought up to normal (13.6V-14V), the sensor tells it to free-wheel. In this manner, the fuse panel always has enough voltage to power all the electrical devices at full voltage.
The one wire altenator only has one large gauge red wire from the altenator to the battery. So how does it control the altenator? It doesn't!!!
A small internal wire or diode is used as a jumper between the charge wire and pin 2. pin 2 is now reading battery voltage instead of actual voltage at the fuse panel. When the battery gets low, pin 2 triggers it into charge mode. As soon as pin 2 reads the charging voltage it triggers it into free-wheel mode. When the battery voltage falls below 10 volts, then it will stay on long enough to charge at 12 volts and then shut off. Eventually, the battery gets charged. Meanwhile, back at the fuse panel, voltage has been fluctuating between 9.5 and 10.5 volts.
So what does this all boil down to?
With a one wire system and low voltage at the fuse panel, your new expensive CD system sounds like crap, your lights are constantly dim, and that new Super Duper Spiffy ignition system with the 35,000 volt output is only giving out 18,000 volts to the sparks. You're right back to a stock distributor (can you say fouled plugs?). Oh yeah, need I go into how it affects a computer controlled TBI (can you say poor MPG?)???
In short, keep the three wire system. Dress it up with a brightly colored loom. And put your hard earned money elsewhere.
The guys from GM and Delco-Remy were not idiots, they new what they were doing when they designed their altenator. There are three wires on an altenator for a reason.
First off, electricity cannot be created, nor distroyed. But it can be altered. It must come from one of the five sources, (heat, light, friction, magnetism or chemical reaction). Altenators work on magnetism, but they must have a voltage source to create the magnetism, (battery). This is as far as I'll go on this, otherwise I'll type for two days and you'll end up with a degree in Electronic Engineering.
In laymans terms, let me explain why a three wire altenator is superior to a one wire altenator:
A standard internally regulated altenator has three wires coming out of it. One is the large gauge red wire that goes directly to the battery, (charge wire). The second is the smaller gauge colored wire, (pin 2-voltage sensor). The third is an equal size wire, (pin 3-sometimes used for indicators or gauges). It's pin 2 of the two wire plug-in that is important here. Pin 2 is connected to the fuse panel, and as you know everything is connected to the fuse panel. Pin 2 is the feed wire for the internal magnetic field that generates electricity. Pin 2 is also the voltage sensor for the altenator. It reads or measures the voltage at the fuse panel. If it's low (below 12V), it triggers the altenator into a charge mode. When the voltage at the fuse panel is brought up to normal (13.6V-14V), the sensor tells it to free-wheel. In this manner, the fuse panel always has enough voltage to power all the electrical devices at full voltage.
The one wire altenator only has one large gauge red wire from the altenator to the battery. So how does it control the altenator? It doesn't!!!
A small internal wire or diode is used as a jumper between the charge wire and pin 2. pin 2 is now reading battery voltage instead of actual voltage at the fuse panel. When the battery gets low, pin 2 triggers it into charge mode. As soon as pin 2 reads the charging voltage it triggers it into free-wheel mode. When the battery voltage falls below 10 volts, then it will stay on long enough to charge at 12 volts and then shut off. Eventually, the battery gets charged. Meanwhile, back at the fuse panel, voltage has been fluctuating between 9.5 and 10.5 volts.
So what does this all boil down to?
With a one wire system and low voltage at the fuse panel, your new expensive CD system sounds like crap, your lights are constantly dim, and that new Super Duper Spiffy ignition system with the 35,000 volt output is only giving out 18,000 volts to the sparks. You're right back to a stock distributor (can you say fouled plugs?). Oh yeah, need I go into how it affects a computer controlled TBI (can you say poor MPG?)???
In short, keep the three wire system. Dress it up with a brightly colored loom. And put your hard earned money elsewhere.