1 wire alternators

[BBR]

Prose & Conse?

Discuss. Thanks.

[tardis454]

They work on anything.

[JeffMcKC]

Pros everything

Cons I do not know any

[Mater]

what they said

just converted the 46 truck to a 12 volt system with one

[studemax]

Several guys in my Studebaker club have converted their 6V positive ground Studebakers over to one wire alternators.
They make more power than generators (the lights don't go yellow at night idling at the corner), and you don't have to fool with polarizing the voltage regulator because it's built in.
We got the idea from all the Model A guys who converted them over for reliability.

[1988montecarloss 2]

my buddies crown vic has a gm 1-wire alt in it haha

[Scott Liggett]

Have one in the Caprice. Got tired of either the alternator or the external regulator taking a dump. It stopped the fan slowing down, and headlights dimming at idle.

[TheSilverBuick]

Con: It's another GM part on your Ford.


That's the best I've got =P

[Huskinhano]

BBR, I believe there is a kit to convert the Ford G series alternators to single wire. The early Mustang guys use the 5.0 100 & 130 amp versions with adapter kits and I seem to recall a conversion kit to make them single wire. If you already had a G series, you could get the harness kit. IIRC, pretty cheap.

Found this for the 45-65 amp 1G maybe some one makes it for larger 3G alternators.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VOLTAGE-Regulator-Ford-Single-wire-Conversion-1G-45-65A-/160577467030?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item256329b296&vxp=mtr#ht_619wt_956

[CDMBill]

I think I'm famous for alleged alternator over kill but I put this one on after the DW fiasco with the MSD unit last year. Its Powermasters improved version of the 200 Amp 1999-2004 Mustang Cobra alternator and stock ones are pretty available thorugh auto parts stores for on road swaps should that become necessary. It does use an exciter wire but that's no big deal as your car already has that circuit. So its a two wire alternator. I used a PM GM one wire 130 amp before I bought the the MSD, and after it died at DW (five years later)I bought a used PM 130 amp from a friend of the O'reily auto parts manger in Topeka. Why ? because all they stock now are 65 amp one wire GM alternators. No good for an EFI car with electric fans, waterpump, fuel pumps etc.



The GM one wires are good stuff and I have had no issues, but 200 amp new style Ford with exciter which keeps the voltage up at idle and everything electrical happy in hot weather & bad traffic at night, is hard to beat.

[66chevyII]

Read this by Mark Hamilton of Mad Electrical
http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...hreewire.shtml

[CDMBill]

This was an interesting read and I'll admit it reinforced the view I already re the benefit of using the exciter wire circuit as available in the Ford cars under discussion.

Is that a fair answer James?

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm not a fan of one wire. I have one on the Buick, and the Chev pickup... the Buick, is easy enough to live with - the pickup, I'm mad at myself for being talked into it. Whenever I winch, whenever I'm at idle and the converter is powering the air compressor or welder I can tell when the batteries are starting to die because the generator simply can't keep up and loses its field. I suppose if I didn't notice, I could literally kill the motor if the batteries got low enough to drop the pin into the pump (the diesel uses a pin to block the fuel flow to shut the motor off that's held with a magnetic field).... so no, not a fan.

[BBR]

Read this by Mark Hamilton of Mad Electrical
http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...hreewire.shtml

Yes I read the the other day. Not being an electrical engineer, I assume he has some valid points. My normal thought process though is actual user input trumps theory 9 times out of 10. That's why I asked here.

The 3 wire may very well be technically 'better', but does that 'better' really translate to any end-user benefit? based on things I have read, I am having a hard time seeing that it does for normal passenger car applications.

I am just thinking of upgrading the alternator (Ford 1g) on the Mustang because I think it is dying or is simply under powered. I have no idea what it is out of or even what it's output is. I did drive the car for 45 minutes the other day in stop/go traffic and when I was ready to leave my destination, I had to jump start it. I thought it was just heat soak making it hard to start, but went out yesterday and tried to crank the car and the battery was too weak to turn it over. The battery was new in October of last year so I'm guessing the alternator is just not keeping up with the electric fan and electric fuel pump. I want to upgrade to at least 100 amps and thought a 1 wire would be a quick/easy/inexpensive way to do that (and subsequently eliminate some of that *wonderful* early 80's Ford wiring). I'm not worried about a GM part on my Ford, I just want something that works well.

[Barry Donovan]

I see anything 1 wire and wonder what the cheapskates did with the backside.

from choke on a carb, to alternator, to gauges stabbed into the block..
the one wire stuff has a risk. Maine is a lunatic with it. drain the battery in the car next to it charging your own.

diodes are young in comparison to 1 wire stuff..another thing to play with.(I just learned what to do with diodes)

I worked on old planes, I first learned of it. You can't just do whatever the heck you want and think the breeze is going to clean off the reaction everytime.

an indicator it is in fact cheapskate... they could do the one wire to a fuel pump, but somebody drew the line as they invented it...made it all 2 wire.