Alternator question

I have 1960 CJ5. There is a Delco Remy alternator on the engine. Only number I could find was 110246361. Lots of rewiring has been done to the jeep. Question is the wiring to the alternator. There is one screw post with nut on back of alternator. One wire runs from this to a new "aftermark voltmeter gauge". There are also two wire post on the back of alternator. The top wire post runs a wire to the battery (Charging). The bottom wire post has a short wire that runs to the screw post with nut (connects to battery).

Question: Voltage from the top wire post to battery shows ~12 volts when jeep is running. The aftermarket volt meter is showing between 15V to offscale. Is the voltmeter hooked up correctly? Is the wiring right? Sugegstions?

 

My voltmeter show just short of 15 volts with the engine running. It shouldn't read more than 15 volts. If it does, either the meter is off or the voltage regulator may be bad.

 

Do a search here and you will find tons of info. However, I will take a shot. Sounds like someone swapped in an internal regulator alternator. That is a good thing. Doesn't sound like it is wired right, but easy to fix. The screw post on the back is the charge wire. Use at least a 10 gauge wire and run it to the pos bat post, or instead you could run it to the starter solenoid where the pos bat cable connects, in essence it is the same thing.
Then there is a 2 wire plug on the "side" of the alt. They should be marked "1" and "2". Without getting into the theory of operation, just run a wire from the number 2 terminal to the screw post on the back of the alt. The number one wire can be done two ways.
option one, if you want your 'amp" light on your speedo to work, it goes like this. Pop the light fixture out of the speedo. It should have 2 wires coming out. Run one wire to the number one terminal on the alt. Run the other to the ignition switch so that it is hot with the KEY ON ONLY. Now when you turn the key on, the light should light up. When started, it should go out. If it stays on, it indicates a problem inside the alt. Good reason to have it hooked up.

Option 2. If you don't want to run the light, then do everything the same but you skip the light and instead put in a resistor (to simulate the light) can't remember the ohms rating to use, but if you want to do this let me know and I will look it up. The alt needs this resistance to start charging properly. Without it, you'll have to rev the engine up to several grand before the alt will start charging.

As for the voltmeter, I would run it off the accessory side of the ignition switch. That way it is only on when the key is on, or if you turn it to accessory you can check the condition of the battery charge without actually starting it. Course you can do the same thing by turning the key to run and not actually starting it, but this is the way I do mine. I WOULD NOT run it straight to the battery, then it would be on all the time.

Hope that is clear as mud! Let us know if you need more!

 

A fully charged battery will show about 12.5-12.6 on a voltmeter. With engine running, the alt should be running at about 14.5-14.8 this is normal. Anything over 15 I would check the regulator as Posi already stated.