Hi guys! I thought I would try posting here to see if I could get any help on a problem I've been having with my brother's 1963 impala. It's a nice old car but the charging system has issues.
We've had problems for years getting this thing to charge right, and one of the problems was the wiring harness was ancient on the car.
Anyways.
We bought a new Engine Harness, and a brand new Forward Light Harness, which has all the connections for the alternator/voltage regulator on the car.
Installed all of that. Car will not charge.
I checked all of the connections... my brother kept insisting it was an internally regulated alternator, but it appears to me to be the older style GM with the external regulator, which would be correct for this car. I removed the Voltage Regulator, and installed one of the little jumper kits you're supposed to use when you install an internally regulated alternator. The battery in the car was measuring around 11.8 volts, and when the car started, the battery immediately started charging up. The only problem is, it KEPT charging, until the point where the battery was reading 15.1 volts. At this point, i shut the car off fearing I would damage something.
With the car off, the battery measured in the high 12's, 12.8 volts or something similar. I hooked the voltage regulator back up, and drove the car. By the time I got home (10 minute drive), the battery was then reading
11.9 volts. This is with the "generator" light on the whole time.So I bought a new Voltage regulator, to check that out. Installed it tonight, and the battery read 12.4 volts sitting in the car. Started the car, the voltage dropped to 12.1 volts and stayed there with the car running. Turned on the headlights, and the voltage at the battery measured
11.9 volts, and was slowly dropping with the car in idle. If you rev the car, voltage stays around the same. Turn the car off, it stays at 11.9 volts... turn the headlights off, the battery rises to 12.1, get out of the car, battery reads 12.3. It was slowly climbing with the car off!I've checked all the connections with a multimeter for resistance... and remember this is a brand new harness so I don't think there's really much of a way to mess up the wiring, it's pretty straight forward.
The Positive post on the Alternator, I have feeding to the positve post of the battery. There's no resistance in the line.
The negative or Field post of the alternator, I have feeding to the ground wire on the radiator support beside the Voltage regulator. There is continuity by the meter between the alternator case, the alternator bracket, the field post, the negative post of the battery, the negative ground point on the radiator support by the voltage regulator, the case of the voltage regulator, and the bolt holding the voltage regulator on. It seems to me that everything is grounded properly. The ground from the battery runs directly to the alternator bracket as well.
The other two wires into the back of the alternator are just wired up to the new stock alternator harness heading over to the voltage regulator. None of that has been changed or anything so I assume those two wires are wired correctly, they both test no resistance all the way back to the regulator from the alternator, and plug right into the back of the alternator.
My brother thinks that the alternator is internally regulated, and our problem is that we're running that and the external regulator on the car. The plug on the back of the alternator is the old style, external regulator kind, and he says when he ordered the alternator he got it for a 73 Chevy pickup.
When I removed the voltage regulator and used the jumper clip, the battery charged up to 15.1 volts in a matter of 60 seconds. That sounds to me like what an externally regulated alternator would do if you removed the external voltage regulator and jumpered the connections together.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Ron Charlotte, NC