76 Alternator upgrade wire splicing

[bhermes]

Just looking for some advice or direction.

I upgraded to the 60 AMP internally regulated alternator some time ago and made the proper wiring changes. I have recently found some issues with my fusible links and have for the most part corrected those. Loose connections and some corrosion cleaned up and pressed down a little. Running voltage improved to 14.7V (good). Was seeing as low as 10V.

Issue is that I used snap lock splices (big blue things) for the wiring change on the alternator upgrade and it appears that when I shake the mess of wires and splices I get some variation in voltage at the battery. I would like to redo the splicing using some other method.

Is soldering and heat shrink tubing the way to go or is there another option that would be better? What is typically done? Just a reminder in the thread I have a 76 280.

Thanks.

[SteveJ]

If you are worried that your crimped connections might fail...Sealed Crimp and Solder Connectors or Multilinkâ„¢ Sealed Crimp and Solder Butt Splice Wire Connectors and Ring Terminal Kits for a couple of examples.

[Mark Maras]

Personally, I like to solder & use heat shrink tube. My son used this method as well when he rewired his 81 RX7 after a major elec. fire cooked his dashboard & fused his wire harnesses about 2 feet in all directions from the fuse block. When he wrapped the harnesses with tape the repairs were barely noticeable. No unsightly lumps in the harness. BTW everything is still working great.

Mark in Portland

[siteunseen]

I learned some helpful tricks for soldering by watching a Youtube video, stiff wire with alligator clips on the ends was the best one. It was frustrating compared to butt connectors but since it was my injector connectors I didn't want miles of electrical tape looking at me every time I opened the hood.

[beermanpete]

I prefer to solder splices and use shrink tubing. Crimp connectors are fine when done properly but the $5 crimp tools must of us have don't make good crimps.

[bhermes]

Going with soldering and heat shrink tubing. I am just not that familiar with the combo splices.

Thanks.

[bhermes]

OK, so I went to replace my connectors for my alternator upgrade to solder and hear shrink and was trying to make sense of what I original did with the rewiring for the upgrade. It appears that I connected position (blue) 1 to position 5 (white with black strip) correctly but I actually connected position 3 (yellow) to position 6 (green) instead of position 2 (white).

I would like for someone much more intelligent than me to comment on what this should actually be doing. The car is running and I am getting 14.7 volts at the battery but have some issues when I shake the mess I made and sometimes this effects the voltage.

I will switch this to be correct when I make the solder / heat shrink change but would really like to understand what I actually hooked together.

Thanks in advance.

[SteveJ]

The black/white wire signals the alternator that the ignition is on. It will get that signal from the wire at position 1.

The yellow wire is the battery sensing wire to the alternator. It is connected to the white wire because that is coming off of the fusible link.

Edited March 20, 2014 by SteveJ
Fixing crappy grammar

[bhermes]

SteveJ thanks for the reply. I kind of understand your reply; however, can you explain what problems I should be having with the way I have wired. What is not happening that should be happening and what is happening the way I have it currently wired. Just trying to see if it makes sense with the way the car is acting.

[SteveJ]

I don't have time to track down the origin of the green wire, but it goes all over the place, including to the turn signals. The battery signal isn't designed to go through a switched circuit. Go to How Stuff Works and search on alternator.

I was going off of memory for the ignition signal. It is the white/black wire that is the ignition signal to the alternator. It should be connected to the wire at pin 1.

[Captain_Zeros]

6 and 2 are both +12v (ideally), however 6 is ignition switched 12v that runs through the car to various places and 2 is straight to the battery.

Pin 3 is your voltage sense pin, so you want a really good clean 12 volt source attached to it so the alternator can know whether to charge or not. Depending on the condition of your electrical system (40 years old!) it could cause some voltage fluctuations due to the alternator getting voltage dropped signals from the wire that runs all over the car instead of the bee-line wire to the battery.

[bhermes]

Thanks guys. I was able to get about 10 minutes today to work on this and removed the splice connectors for the 3 to 6 pin and replaced with solder and heat shrink from 3 to 2. Hopefully this gives me a more consistent voltage. I should get a little time tomorrow to switch out the splice from 1 to 5 with solder and hear shrink just to clean up the whole system.

I did take a minute to look at the wiring diagram and noticed the green wire going everywhere so I understand the difficulty in seeing what I really was getting. I am sure some voltage drop and some inconsistencies.

Again thanks.