Why do I not have a voltage regulator

[Kodiak]

My voltage regulator is missing. I did not know what those wires went to until looking at ChadL's blazer this weekend. Also on the alternator, the 2 wire plug and the ground that come out of the wiring harness are not hooked up. There is no place on the alternator for them. There is a seperate wire running from the alternator to the ignition switch.

What has someone done to my blazer???

Where can I find detailed info on how the wiring was from the factory. There are so many wires spliced into each other under the dash I can not tell what is what.

 

[ZZ4x4]

Sounds like you have an internally regulated one-wire alternator. The only wire you need goes to the battery. In your case possible hooked to ignition 12v instead?? I am running a one-wire alt, and like the fact I was able to remove the regulator and all the messy wiring associated. See ya,
JT

 

[kpanza]

Yep, sounds like you have a one-wire alternator, internally regulated. That wire should go to the battery +, so that is all I would switch in your case. The newer internally regulated alts are much more reliable and like was said above, is much cleaner and simpler!

 

[Burt4x4]

Hmmm, so to switch from an external to internal all you need to do is get a new alt and leave the old stuf disconnected???
Or are there jumpers involved or some other "trick"????
If I rember corectly there are like 6 to 8 wires going into the external regulator on my radiator support wall. If I switch to a one wire does that screw with my fuse box wireing at all????

72K5

Led Zeppelin

Rock ON!

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[Kodiak]

So what is the wire that runs directly to my ignition switch? This wire is in addition to the main wire from the harness.

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Kodiak on 01/07/02 05:07 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[arq]

the external regulator takes in 4 wires. you cant leave any wires disconected. the alternator takes another 2 wires + power.

this is what I had to do take out my external regulator and place an internally regulated one in. I put a jumper from 1st to the 3rd connector, and another jumper from 2nd to the 4th. It did NOT matter from what side I started. The jumpers were connected as follows at the external regulator side.
(1)BLUE - (3)RED
(2)WHITE - (4)BROWN

at the internal regulated alternator, looking at it from the rear, with the connector on top, the <font color=blue>BLUE</font color=blue> wire should be on the right and the <font color=white>WHITE</font color=white> on left.

power is obious(sp)

this worked for me, if you have questions let me know.

ARQ.

offroad baja!!!
72 4x4 CST Blazer
71 4x4 CST Blazer
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[Kodiak]

This is how mine is set up.
The wires for the external regulator are just unpluged. They are not connected in any way. The only wire from the original harness that is hooked to the alternator is the red power. The other 2 wires and the ground are not connected. There is a plug on the side of the alternator that has 2 wires. One makes a small loop and connects to the back of the alternator. The other goes strait to the ignition switch.

Why would a wire need to go to the ignition???

 

[arq]

to cut the power to your field inside the alt. if not you would drain your battery.

the conector probably was rerouted, check it and you will see for yourself. there is no way that you could just disconnect it and made to work, unless you found a way to transmit power through air :-)

ARQ.

offroad baja!!!
72 4x4 CST Blazer
71 4x4 CST Blazer
<a target="_blank" href=http://coloradok5.com/gallery/ArqDennis>My Pics</a>

 

[Kodiak]

All 4 wires are hanging there by themselves(if your talking about the conector for the regulator). If its rerouted I'm not sure where it would be. How about those other 3 wires not hooked up to the alternator? What are they for?

Also, I thought power came out of the alternator, not to it?

If I had the eletrical diagrams, I could probably answer my own questions.

 

[71RestoRod]

If memory serves... Motorcraft made an internally regulated alternator as you are describing. The heavy gauge goes to the battery; the other is an exciter lead that goes to the ignition switch. If that's the case, you may be good to go. Are you having charging or other electrical problems?

Edit:
Of course I may be totally whacked here... as the last time I worked on one of these was in the '70s and I was properly dazed and confused.
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by 71RestoRod on 01/07/02 09:34 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[Kodiak]

I'm not having any problems. I'm just trying to figure out why I have so many wires not going to anything.

An example of some of the wiring on my blazer: I have a wire under the dash going from the ignition to the fuse box(wrapped around one of the fuses). The wire is 3 feet long and made up of 4 different colors of wire spliced together. Most of my wires end in a different color than they began.

 

[71RestoRod]

I feel your pain! A lot of hands have been laid on these gems in the last 30 years.... but I swear... I didn't work on your Blazer in the 70s! (gawd... if only I could remember for sure...)

 

[ZZ4x4]

I know a lot of guys installed jumpers etc... but I did not. I looked at my schematics and figured the only issue could possibly be the voltage gauge would not read , but it also gets 12 v power from another wire which tees into the circuit at the dash....so, I removed the voltage regulator and cut back all the wires to the harnesses and retaped them. I ran a brand new fat red wire from the one wire alt to the battery + and everything including the gauge work fine. I miss understood the first post to mean there was only one wire and it was going to ignition. If you have this one plus the battery wire, I agree it is to cut the field to save battery from draining. The "true" one wire alts do this automatically when the revs slow way down. JT

 

[Steve_Chin]

A previous owner did a hack job to the wiring. That's why you have a bunch of connectors just hanging there. Not a big deal, just kind of ugly to have 'em hanging there.