How to hook up 1-wire alternator on 78Z?

[Guest nwzeeman]

I am looking to purchase a mini-alternator with a 1-wire hook up for my 1978Z with a stock 350. The single wire is supposed to go from the battery directly to the alternator. Referring to the JTR manual, how would the blue wire coming from the voltmeter gauge hookup? The red/white wire going to the alternator wouldn't get used, and I don't think I want to hook the blue wire up to the same connector on the alternator that the large gauge wire from the battery is hooked to. I like the idea of the 1-wire alternator, I'm just having a tough time figuring out how I would hook up the blue wire to monitor the voltage. Thanks for any advice....-Rod

[80LS1T]

I dont know exactly which wire you are talking about but if its just the wire that is used to tell the voltmeter how much voltage the charging sytem is putting out then any 12V wire will do. You dont have to wire it right to the battery.

 

Guy

[blueovalz]

The voltmeter wire could go onto any 12vdc source, which includes the heavy wire from the alternator going to the battery. When I wired my "one wire alternator" I was told that the idiot light circuit was necessary for the charge to work optimally (I do not know why, or if this is an absolute, but I went ahead and followed the alternator shop's instructions). So I did wire the idiot light wire off the alternator up to a small 12vdc light on my dash which lights up whenever the alternator is not charging (yes, I'm sure you're scratching you head on this one, but my alternator is driven off the driveshaft and my idiot light comes on at any speed under about 10 mph.