Alternator Upgrade Related Questions (was One-Wire Alternator Questions)

[ArdWrknTrk]

Yep, I know where John is. 💡
Somebody the other day needed his contact info for a sticker.....

[dirtymac]

I have emailed him about my situation with the polarity change on my converted meter.  I'll let everyone know what the response is.

[ArdWrknTrk]

dirtymac wrote

You beat me to it.  I was able to check the voltage at the back of the meter, -12.5v.  Something I missed in Rocketman's documentation is that he recommends not using the factory cluster wiring but instead wiring the converted meter in with new wires.

I was not expecting the conversion of the meter to switch it's polarity.  I don't know if that is due to the nature of the conversion or what.

You've got to realize that his main business is '60s Torino's, Cougars and Mustangs.
Harnii in vehicles that old are usually toast.

These '80's trucks hold up pretty well from what I see.
Though yours is pretty early, with a 335 and all that Cleveland goodness going on!

[Gary Lewis]

On the left is the backside of C208A, the connector that goes into the gauge cluster.  And you can see the R/O & Y/LG wires in the upper right, pins 8 & 9.  On the right is the front side of that connector and I've pulled up the tab that keeps Pin 8 in the connector.  To swap the two wires you just ease that tab up, pull the wires, swap, and reinsert them.

I hope to dig down to the way Big Blue is wired later today, but my documentation shows that the R/O wire is positive and the Y/LG is ground.

[Gary Lewis]

Well, the plot thickens.  The pics below show how Big Blue is wired - just like my documentation says.  R/O goes to Pin 8 and Y/LG goes to Pin 9 of C208A, and 8 has battery voltage on it when the key is on and 9 is ground.  Not only that, you can see Rocketman's red paint on the DS stud and black on the PS stud of the voltmeter.  Plus, I've put lines on the traces to show where they go.

Will - Which of your voltmeter's studs is red?  Has he changed his orientation?  

[dirtymac]

Mine are opposite.  I refused to unplug the cluster again last night when we were diagnosing the issue so this is a badly lit and badly focused image.  However, the red and black markings should be clear enough.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, Will.  That pretty well confirms it.  

I just sent Bob/Rocketman this email:

Bob - First, I am so sorry for your loss.

I'm one of your biggest fans and strongly recommend that people converting to a 3G alternator on the Bullnose trucks have you convert their ammeter to a voltmeter, which you can see on my webpage here.  I'm running one of yours and love it.  In fact, I think I sent you a core several years ago to just help out.

But I need a bit of help as one of the Bullnose Forum members just got his meter back from you and it appears that the positive and negative terminals have been swapped, which means my wiring diagram is wrong.  I couldn't believe that so I pulled my dash apart today and documented which post you painted red vs black, and had my member take a pic of his.  They sure seem to be flipped.  You can see the pictures of them in my post here and then his follow-on post.

I'm just trying to understand how you are going to be doing it so I can adjust my schematic if needed.  Not at all saying you are wrong.  But I'm updating my wiring diagram and would like it to match how you plan to do it.  Will, the gentleman that just installed your meter, is the first to use my new schematic, and Jeff in Canada has a meter on order from you, and he''ll be #2.  So I need to get this right and would appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Gary Lewis
Bullnose Forum

[Tarheel Blue]

The instruction sheet that was included w/ my conversion states that RED is + and BLACK is -

But also states;

 “If you wire the meter backwards it won’t be harmed, It just won’t work. Reverse the wires and you’ll be fine.”

[Gary Lewis]

Right, Kurt.  But it appears he's switched which post is positive, which makes it really hard for us to come up with an easy way to do this.  Granted it is easy to swap the R/O & Y/LG wires and you are literally right there when installing the voltmeter in the cluster and then the cluster in the dash.

[dirtymac]

The perfectionist in me is just screaming right now.

[BigEasy]

What is this?  
I'm trying to follow along.  I'm in the middle of a re-wire.  I intend to go to 3G, but it's not in my budget yet so I have to rewire old way and in a month or 2 when I get new alternator I can go this route,  But I don't know what this relay is?

[dirtymac]

That relay is not factory installed.  At some point in the history of my truck, someone added the relay to the electric choke on my carburetor.  The relay was wired in with the factory 1G harnesses but in the picture it has been removed.  The red wire looks like it is connected to something else but it is not.

I believe Jim said somewhere in this thread that there was a similar factory relay on some 351HO.  That was not the case on my engine (400).

[BigEasy]

Whew....thanks.

[Gary Lewis]

Here's the page from the 1985 EVTM showing the relay for the 351HO, aka 5.8L 4V.:

[dirtymac]

I haven't heard anything from him since my email last week.  I checked his website this afternoon and his out of office date was updated but it looks like he should be back now.

[dirtymac]

Bob called me Friday a week ago about my gauge.  I talked to him for a while about the conversion, what we are all working on and what I did to remedy my specific situation.  It was a very informative conversation and I'm very appreciative given everything he has been going through.  After speaking with him, it sounds like my gauge was shipped out reversed from his normal configuration and was just an oversight.

[Gary Lewis]

That's good to know - that the gauge was reversed, not that he's had serious problems.  So Jeff should be good to go when he gets his and we shouldn't have to alter the schematic.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I can certainly understand, with the sort of stress he's encountering given all that's going on.
I definitely know that when you're doing a job by instinct as much as anything else, it easy to miss something (like a diode) that is symmetrical but polarized.

I hope he's doing ok and you get your truck to where you want it!  😊

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

That's good to know - that the gauge was reversed, not that he's had serious problems.  So Jeff should be good to go when he gets his and we shouldn't have to alter the schematic.

We'll see when I will get it, but I am now aware that (maybe) a wrong rebuild could occur.
Let's hope that mine will be ok.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Gary do you have Ryan's install instructions and catalogued items for sale from the wayback?

https://web.archive.org/web/20071015182225/http://fordfuelinjection.com/?p=75

https://web.archive.org/web/20070221131638/http://rjminjectiontech.com/?p=7