1966 buick rivera electrical problem

terry march

terry march

Member
when the car is at idle it maintains a 14.8v charge until you turn on the lights,blower fan, wind shield wipers at this time the car is 12.5v and steady dropping until your put the car in gear and it cuts off. I have changed the alternator and also tried an alternator with a built in regulator with 65amps, the car keeps on cutting off with all the switches on, anyone have any ideas of what this could be?:jeez:
 
Where do you have the alternator's voltage sensing wire connected? That's the one coming from terminal "2" on the plug-in connector.

Also, does the car have any modifications to the stock electrical system? Examples: electronic ignition, non-stock audio equpment, non-stock air conditioning, non-stock headlights/driving lights, alarm system, aftermarket gauges, any other electrical accessories not installed at the factory.

Ray
 
1966 riviera

The car is stock accept from being bored 30 over, At first I had an alternator from autozone(what the car calls for by their standard), which was doing the same thing that is doing now, but here recently I have a alternator with a built in voltage regulator with 65amps, so it have the power wire and one with the two terminal clip and I ran one side to the battery and the other side, I left it hanging.
 
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1966 riviera

In the alternator wiring diagram that you sent me, do it show the blue and the brown wired together and the white and red also.
 
terry march said:
In the alternator wiring diagram that you sent me, do it show the blue and the brown wired together and the white and red also.
Click to expand...

Yes, the dotted lines are jumper wires which could be plugged into the original regulator connector if you still have it. If the connector has been cut off, just splice the wires together.

Ray
 
1966 riviera

Ray, my voltage regulator only have a blue,yellow,red and a resistor, so do the blue and red connect and which wire connects to the yellow? There is a generator wiring diagram on this web site that shows the yellow wire going to the wipers.
 
Sorry about the delay. I had to find a wiring diagram first so I could see what you have there. Those 3-wire regulators add a bit of complication to the alternator conversion, but the problem should still be fixable.

This is only a test to see if the alternator will charge at all. Disconnect either battery cable, so you don't accidentally get a short while you are working on the wiring. At the old regulator connector, connect the blue and yellow wires together. Don't connect anything to the red wire. At the alternator, connect the blue wire to terminal #1 on the plug-in connector. Run a short jumper from terminal #2 to the BAT terminal on the alternator.

Reconnect the battery cable and start the engine. Check the charging voltage with your voltmeter like you did before. If the voltage reads normal, shut the engine off and remove the jumper from terminal #2. Now run a new wire from #2 to either the junction block on the horn relay or the red wire on the old regulator connector, whichever is easier. This wire carries almost no current at all, so it doesn't have to be very heavy. 18 gauge will be fine.

There is a possibility with this hookup that you may not be able to shut the engine off with the key. If that happens, pull the plug-in connector at the alternator and post here again. Don't be too concerned about this, because the fix for it is fairly easy.

Ray
 
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