alternator wireing

[greg]

help done the trike wireing but have come a cropper on the alternator its a reliant engine lucas alt with 3 conections but what goes where?
i have a direct feed from the battery and a feed from the alt to the coil but where do thay go the inner conection is a smallish spade the next 2 out are big spades.
i almost fried the coil today i conected the bat to the outside conection and the feed to the coil to the next big spade but over heated the coil then conected the other way round same problem?
which spade is earth if one is?
:confused:

[dracken1]

the small spade is for the charge indicator light i believe.

can't answer the other question as i never do electrics.
but i will ask my auto lecky man as he is finishing off a customers wiring in the morning

[Lone-Wolf]

Wotcha.

Ah - the good old Lucas ACR alternator.

Dead easy to wire - and just about the most reliable alternator on the market despite being made by Lucas. Keep it simple is the key.

There are indeed three terminals.

Two big 'uns and a little 'un.

Look closely and you'll find the two big 'uns are joined together. These go straight to the battery ( either one, it don't matter ).

The little 'un is the one that excites the alternator ( stop tittering at the back ). Take a wire from the positve ( ACR alternators are negative earth anyway ) side of the battery ---> through the ignition switch ( i.e. it switches on when the key is turned ) and to one side of a warning light. This is the important bit, the bulb must be 2.2 watts, which is the standard warning light rating anyway. From the other side of the warning light, run the wire to the small terminal on the alternator. When you turn the key, the bulb lights up, and in turn mangetizes the alternator.
The alternator gets it's earth from it's mounting bolts.

If this sounds a bit tricky, let me know and I'll do a simple diagram of it.

http://www.moonshiners.org.uk/images/altwire.jpg

[Mad Dog]

Lone Wolf's description and diagram is spot on for a car type alternator.
Make sure that the wire from the alternator to the battery is at least 65/0.30 35amp cable - or you'll melt that.

Wiring in any other fashion is in danger of frying the diode pack.

Most other wiring from the switch can be standard 28/0.30 17.5amp per circuit which allows you to use up to a 15amp fuse in each circuit.

The circuit loads should be worked out according to the above and the appropriate cable and relays used.

The coil must be wired with a positive supply from the ignition switch so that it is live when turned on, and the negative side of the coil goes to the points which then earth thru the distributor body.

I would always fit a cut out switch that isolates the whole vehicles electrics. Bearing in mind that you must now fit Hazard Lights that work when the ignition is off, you can then use the isolator switch to cut off all the electrics when you leave the vehicle - that way some passing idiot doesn't flatten yer battery by playing with the switches.

[here's_Mike.R]

Make sure you put a good earth from the chassis to the engine and chassis to the battery. This must be done with heavy duty cables. I have seen vehicles where these earth cables have been left off - usually after a car engine swap. The throttle and choke cables then get used as earths and are generally of quite high resistance, which means they can actually start glowing red hot and the rest you can probably imagine.

Good luck with it.

[greg]

thanks for the info wil get on it as soon as a bit of spare time comes along and let you know the result.

[greg]

wired up the alt as per diagram and the warning light switch was in the off position and whosh smoke allover the place the wire from the coil to the points went up.?
could this be due to a bad earth on the engine/chassie ?
or a short in the coil?
aggghe
:mad:

[Mash]

Let me know your email address and I'll mail you a wiring diagram for a Rialto/Robin

[Alik Windrush]

Check the points insulation....

[Mark]

Yoda knows a lot about alternators.......don't ya :D

[greg]

mash
just tryed your email and it came back to me try emailing me from this forum
thanks greg

[Mash]

Doh...got the wrong email address on here...n you've got email disabled :confused:

Drop me an email at mash@aits-uk.net n I'll send ya the diagram

[deano]

does anyone know weather a led bulb will excite the coil and get it charging normaly inthe same way as a ordinary warning bulb
cheers

[Lone-Wolf]

does anyone know weather a led bulb will excite the coil and get it charging normaly inthe same way as a ordinary warning bulb
cheers

Wotcha.

In a nutshell - NO <---- and that's a BIG no. It needs the 2.2 watt bulb to give the correct excitement. What I've done on the 'big' trike is use the 2.2 watt bulb, and also run a LED mounted in the headlight. You could always mount the bulb where no one could see it, and just use the LED.

[deano]

thanks for that- I want to mount some led warning bulbs into my handlebars and had'nt thought about adding a normal bulb as well. so problem solved
thanks again :o
DEANO