Charging question
 

Hey All,
Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I have a charging question. I put a 1-wire alt. On my truck a few weeks back, and it’s been working fine. I have noticed that when I have the lights on it drops off at a stoplight, and the lights slightly dim. As soon as I take off it jumps right back up to where it should be. Is this normal? If not what should I do to fix the problem?
Thanks,
Tim

Re: Charging question
 

Tim,
What is the output of the one you put on? It sounds like it my be a little marginal for you power requirements.

Re: Charging question
 

Well, it's the GM 100 amp one from Summit. I don't relly have any big requirements, hell I don't even have a radio yet.

Re: Charging question
 

What you describe is normal. You can test with a volt meter to see what the voltage is at the battery at idle vs. reving the engine off of idle. As long as the voltage gets up to 14 volts when you rev the engine, the alternator is operating normally.

If you are annoyed by this, you can try using a smaller diameter pulley on the alternator so that it turns faster at idle. Cadillac's used to use such a pulley because of the load of electrics that they ran.

I hope this is helpful.

Regards,
Steve Lorio
New Orleans.

Re: Charging question
 

Cool! thanks for the help

Re: Charging question
 

Yep, Those one-wire jobs do that! Low charging at idle speed. Annoying but otherwise not a problem. A delco 10SI (3 wire) would work better and is only a bit more difficult to wire in. JMHO