Proposed wiring diagram for review

I am finally about to start the wiring portion of my project. I elected to make my own due to cost and, mostly, because I have several items that are not stock. I.E. voltmeter instead of ampmeter, starter from keyed ingition switch instead of foot switch, alternator instead of generator, etc. I was hoping someone with electrical knowledge could review the attached diagram and let me know if I'm in the right ballpark? Elec/Wiring is my weakest link.

Thanks

 

Sorry that the image didn't load. Let's try again.

 

Thanks Howard. I've enlarged the image so it's more easily seen. Would I keep everything as shown and just add a wire between the coil + and the starter solinoid

 

Also it appears that you have the battery terminal and 2 terminal reversed on your alternator.

 

According to the sources I've checked, the #1 alt. wire goes to the warning (idiot) light, and the #2 goes to the battery positive. Check this link. http://www.oldengine.org/unfaq/10si.htm

 

On the 3 wire Delco alternator you have ; Bat - goes to the battery (via fusible link normally) carries full alternator current
#1 terminal - idiot light
#2 terminal - sense line, can be hooked direct to bat terminal functions like one wire alternator or can be connected to distribution point to sense voltage at that point and adjust output of alternator accordingly. Read this article about remote voltage sensing http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/remotevoltagesensing.shtml
Also oldengine link is saying the same thing that I have just point out, #2 term can be tied to bat term, but is not the optimum setup that being said I have been running that very setup on a vintage tractor for 15 years with no problems but it has no significant electrical load just ignition and starting.

 

Dave,
I got mixed up on batt (at alternator) vs. batt (battery)
I've revised diagram. Does this look right? How does everything else look?

 

That is right for the alternator. Just noticed you have your volt meter hooked up like an ammeter. Should have a + term and a - term. + term can be used as a tie point, the - goes to ground.. I would hook the voltmeter to the acc terminal like you have the fuel gauge that should work fine.

 

Did an edit of previous post, unless you want voltmeter on all the time.

 

My goof should not have said to use it as a tie point.

 

If Im looking at it correct, your voltmeter will never be turned off. It needs to be wired through the acc switch. Other than that it looks good.

 

Word of caution... The term on the volt meter is small and it will heat up. The ON or IGN term on switch is more appropriate due size and ability to dissapate heat. That would be putting all the wires on the pos term of volt meter to the IGN term and running another wire from Volt + to Ign.

 

Well, I think I've proven that I'm not a very bright bulb when it comes to sparkies.

Anyway, I have taken your comments into consideration and have redone the diagram. I moved the connection points for power to the ignition switch. Provided a ground wire to the voltmeter. And also tied the voltmeter to the acc. terminal so isn't alway getting power.
Hopefully this is the last go round.

Thanks so much for the help.

 

Maybe just one more try . . .

The alternator's terminal 2 should connect to your "distribution point". In your case, this would be the ignition switch BATT terminal. You have this connected to the ACC terminal.

Terminal 2 on the alternator is the "remote sensing" input to the voltage regulator. The voltage regulator will attempt to maintain a constant voltage on this terminal. By connecting it to the ignition switch, it will compensate for any losses in the power wire from the alternator.

I don't know what might happen if you were to switch this line (as your latest diagram shows), but it might not be a good thing. Could even be bad.

 

One other point . . .

If the voltage regulator maintains the BATT terminal at 14.2 volts, and if you have significant voltage drop in the wire from the alternator to the BATT terminal (such as might happen if you have your lights on), the voltage at the battery will be significantly higher than 14.2 volts, which would be bad for the battery.

For example (referring to your diagram), if you drop 2 volts between the battery and the BATT terminal, the voltage regulator will make the alternator put out 16.2 volts to maintain the BATT terminal at 14.2. This 16.2 volts will be applied to the battery. This may be an extreme example (depending on the guage of the wire and how many lights you have), but your battery will be happier if it doesn't see these excessive voltages.

A better way would be to run a heavy (8 ga.) wire from the alternator to a distribution point (the ignition switch BATT terminal is OK), run the remote sensing wire to this point, then run another heavy wire back to the battery. In your diagram, this would mean the wire from the alternator to the battery would instead be connected to the BATT terminal.

For safety reasons, fusible links would be a good idea. All things considered, you would probably be better off putting a distribution point under the hood and not running quite so much power under the dash.