Recently, my external regulator died, so I purchased a 55amp alternator from a C20 Vanette with internal regulator. Coming from a vehicle with an A14/A15, this was pretty much a bolt on job. Only thing is, my wiring has gone weird (I did connect the white/red to the white black, as mentioned in the wiki). I have a problem where my battery now goes flat in 3 days (brand new battery just fitted three weeks ago too).

Also I noted that from the wiki, where the battery earth connects to the engine block at the oil pump, another earth is apparently supposed to run back to the body, where the horn is located. As this was missing on my ute, I put an earth in as suggested. The only problem is, now the charge light stays lit, even when I've switched the ignition off and removed the key.

Has this possible bad earth, just pointed out to me, that I have something wrong with the way the internal regulated alternator is connected? and this could cause the battery drain I've been getting?

And one other thing, unlike the wiki suggests, I don't appear to have a fusible link that goes from the battery to the alternator, from the positive terminal either. It's just one single wire from the battery to the starter motor, then it looks as if the white/red wire goes to the alternator's 'A' terminal from there. No fusible link whatsoever.

i had a problum like this a while ago...best thing i can suggest is to go to wiki and find the picture with the wiring diagram(that converts external to internal reg) print it and go to your car and check it.make sure you disconect the external regulater.it worked for me

Yeah, I already disconnected and removed the regulator completely. In fact I cut off the connector from the regulator side to make the jumper with. And that diagram? is the L and S on the alternator meant to spliced or what? It doesn't really help much when S looks as if it might be connected to L.

On a stock 1200, the negative battery cable has two leads. One goes to the horn bolt (to earth the body) and the larger lead goes to the timing cover bolt.


Now if yours is newer than a 1971-1973 1200, the wiring harness will have some changes. Newer utes may have different color wires.

1. Flat battery: Start the engine and make sure the voltage is 13.5-15.0 volts. Under this and you battery stays flat. Over this and your battery is damaged.

2. Regulator bypass wiring
* At the alternator, use the original 1200 alternator wire & T-shaped connector. No changes here.
* At the regulator, check which wire goes to the L stamped on the Regulator. That's the one you need to reconnect to the L of the engine harness.



Wiring

I only used the one wire. However, fastjumper said: Quote:
I can't say when you need one jumper vs. two. One worked for me. Maybe he had a newer ute where the colors are different, or maybe he didn't use the Hitachi LR.

Well, I did try everything as was suggested. In the end, i removed the t-connector and all appears fine, except I have no charging light at all. I'm not sure if I'm really supposed to do it like that, but I think I can live without the alternator light. Everything still works okay though. Battery charges up nicely, alternator charges at 14.0-14.3 stable and the elimination of a seemingly bad earth has also made everything run a bit smoother.

As for the battery drain, I connected my multimeter between the negative battery terminal and the negative lead and started to pull fuses one by one to determine the cause, which turns out to be a dodgy headlight switch. The headlights were off and the switch drains power somehow. Anyhow, I will be replacing that with a relay system at some point.

Also the alternator I am using is a 55amp Mitsubishi branded unit, don't know the model number, all I know is that it is from a Nissan C20 Vanette that had an A15 in it.

I wonder how it works without the T-connector. The T not only contains the Lamp signal, but also the "S" signal which tells the alternator to start working.

If it works, it works.

Most of the internally regulated alternators are set up so that they will self start and regulate without any connections other than the main battery.

The self start is done by a 3rd set of small rectifier diodes that rectify the small output voltage caused by the residual magnetism in the rotor. The small output from the residual magnetism is enough to start the voltage regulator.

The self regulation is provided by an internal diode in the regulator that provides the sense voltage from the main battery connection.

Personally, I run the internal regulated alternators with out the sense wire because it makes the output voltage about a half volt higher, which is good for headlight brightness. I also re-wire the headlights with relays and heavy wire to get maximum brightness.

The only thing to note about running without a sense wire is the alternators generally won't start charging the battery until you rev the engine above ~3000 rpm.

so did removing the S wire from the harness to the alternator stop the battery drain?

Well, i'm still at a loss to figure out how it works, but it does and for now I'll leave it at that.

Without that T connector, I've been able to leave the ute for about a week or so now without any hassles kicking it over. The L wire was causing the charge lamp to be constantly lit. Funny thing is, this did not happen until I added another earth from the engine to the body. That alone fixed the problem with my tacho (which is a cheap aftermarket unit), when it was being erratic and going as high as 8-9k rpm. I'm somehow dubious of a stock A14 revving that high anyway.

And yes Gary_P, I have noticed my headlights being brighter, although with H4 halogen conversion headlights, relays will probably help here too. As for the revving above 3000rpm, that's not a problem for me anyway, only having a four speed box and usually travelling on open roads at 110km/h.