My 67 Chevelle 300

[DanStokes]

On mine the alternator, water pump, and PS used one belt. The other groove was for the A/C.

Dan

[CTX-SLPR]

Buick's used dual groove alternator pulleys on the nailheads and the 455's. Shouldn't be too hard to find if you go that route though you might have to pick up a whole alternator as I had to swap pulleys when I got new alternators from the parts store or even a Buick rebuilder alternator shop.

[yellomalibu]

just for grins, toss some talcum (belt dressing) at it and see if it quiets down? Or can you feel it slipping in the assist?

He's got a lot of wrap on the p/s pulley, but very little on the alternator. My guess would be the alternator is where it's slipping.

[milner351]

the alternator looks to be the problem - any way you can run the PS on one crank / wp pulley and the alternator on the other?
or - where the alternator is located - perhaps run the alternator off the crank only - not wrap the wp with the alternator belt?

[67pete300]

Car has been sitting in the garage untouched through the frozen winter. I need to sort this out by Spring so I can either sell it or drive it. I need a dual groove pulley on the alternator. Long story short, it looks like a new alternator that would then need an aftermarket dual groove pulley is part of the solution. The one on there now is the original from the car 10dn, probably 42 amps with the original external voltage regulator. I tried replacing the alternator (Autozone) and VR when I put the new engine together but the new ones didn't work together correctly and I returned the alternator and just put the old one and old VR back on. I still have the new (Chinese) solid state VR part number GP VR273.

Rockauto has cheap rebuilt alternators. I could get a 10dn in 63 amps and hope the VR273 VR works (my research can't put these together.) Or maybe end up buying another VR. I'm assuming the original VR won't work with the new 63 amp alternator.

Or I could upgrade to a 10si internally regulated unit and not mess around with the external VR but would require modifying the wiring or a harness of some sort.

Either one needs an aftermarket double groove pulley. The original alternator has an integral pulley and fan. I'm hoping the new alternator has a separate fan so I can just swap the pulley. I don't need a lot of amps and the "one wire" solution isn't attractive if I lose the idiot light in the dash.

Thoughts on this? Internal or external VR? Experience with dual groove pulley mods?

Thanks.

[TheSilverBuick]

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't the alternator essentially a standard square plug externally regulated GM one? I would expect it to work fine with any of the regulators, though a newer 63 amp one would probably be more reliable. I'm thinking either the regulator or the alternator had an issue on your first go at upgrading. I would try again.

I swapped pulleys on alternators all the time when working at Autozone. If you get one from a junkyard or such from another GM externally regulated alternator it should work. The Buick's through '73 (?) had dual grove pulleys for the A/C, and from what I can tell, even the non-A/C cars had the dual groove alternator pulley, so you could ask for an alternator from a late 60's to early 70's Buick and get a double grooved pulley included.

[DanStokes]

To pick up from Randal's entry - Remember that Delcotrons can be clocked to any of 4 positions so it's no big deal if the connectors are in the wrong place. Usually the shop/store will do that for you if you want them to.

Dan

[Bamfster]

Have you tried looking around here?:

http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog.shtml

[DanStokes]

I just looked at my two. Both are single pulley - sorry. And a quick look did not turn up my PS brackets but if someone needs them I can dig deeper. I KNOW the Camaro had PS that I removed so either the brackets are around the shop somewhere or I took 'em to the scrappers.

Dan

[67pete300]

Good ideas Randal. I found a dual groove 10si 63 amp alternator for a 74 Buick on Rockauto. Then I'll just get the adapter harness from Summitt and forget about the external regulator. Hope this works.

[TheSilverBuick]

The '72 Buick 455 is an externally regulated unit with dual grooves.

[Deaf Bob]

I need to look... Switched the 65 Skylark to internal regulated from external regulated..
Really not hard at all.. Just need to know what wires go where.. It made a hell of a difference!
I'm pretty sure it is because the internally regulated ones are bigger...not physically, but outputwise..
Some of the big cars internally regulated alts are physically bigger but not ampwise...strange indeed..those are muthas to adapt to cars that did not come with

[Bamfster]

The link I posted above .... Mad Electric, sells a plug in to eliminate the VR ... they also have diagrms that show which wires to jump w/out the adapter ...

[Scott Liggett]

The link I posted above .... Mad Electric, sells a plug in to eliminate the VR ... they also have diagrms that show which wires to jump w/out the adapter ...

When I went to the 100 one wire on the Caprice. I just unplugged regulator wires from the regulator, taped them out of the way. Unplugged the other end at the alternator, taped them out of the way. Then ran one 10 ga wire from alternator to battery. Done. It's been running like for years.

[67pete300]

Got the double groove internally regulated Buick alternator from Rockauto and a Powermaster adapter from Summitt. That part worked like a champ. Fixed the major squealing above 2500 rpm and charges great. Got lucky that my old belt fit fine and I got to skip the 4 trips to Napa to find two belts that work.

There is a noticeable whine and some squealing when turning the wheel. I fiddled with all the various attachment points and will have to do some more I guess to try to get things aligned as best I can.

The biggest thing is that there doesn't appear to be any power assist when turning the wheel to the right. Turning left seems to work ok. Overall the assist seems inconsistent. Thoughts on this?