Alternator Adjustable Voltage Regulator, This Might Work.

[Car Cannibal]

Heat and fluids are the main killer here but....

I've rebuilt my alternators since I've owned my 1g and put on 160k miles, it's getting old. I know there's the Saturn update which isn't the easiest but that's a good option if you wanna do all that.

But for is keep it stock but make it better guys....
An adjustable, external voltage regulator might be all that's needed here. On the Grand Nationals a guy named Red Armstrong created a nice, small adjustable voltage regulator that wired into the alternator and allowed the user to set the voltage via a simple screw on the regulator. Mine was always set around 14.3v viewed in the car, probably 14.5v at battery.

Anything like this for the DSM?

My alternator rarely just died, it would charge on startup like normal, drive around like normal but eventually around 20k miles the idle charge, when the car was warm or at night, would drop really low, 12v etc. Once you started driving it would return to 13.5v etc volts.

If there's nothing available I'd have to think a regulator like the above would help most of us until the diodes or regulator dies much later than we regularly see.

Are the 1g and 2g alternator connector plugs the same?

 

[steve]

Are the 1g and 2g alternator connector plugs the same?

Nope. The 1G has a 2 pin external connector for the Field and Sense. The 4G63/4 2G has a 4 pin connector with the two extra pins used for the ECU to switch the output on and off as needed.

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[Car Cannibal]

Thanks Steve, you always have good info on electronics, I found this pic on the board, do you think an external volt booster could work for us 3 wire stock alt, 1gs?

If so how do you think it would need to be spliced in?
Ex S to booster output and L to booster input.

I have an electronics friend that could reverse engineer my other booster and I'll create a plug and play for us.

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[steve]

Thanks Steve, you always have good info on electronics, I found this pic on the board, do you think an external volt booster could work for us 3 wire stock alt, 1gs?

The question is why?

If you want to raise the main bus voltage you could reduce the voltage seen on the sense line. That will cause the regulator to increase the field current to bring the output voltage up.

But unless I misunderstood the point of the thread you are looking to improve the voltage regulation and the fault there is with the internal regulator. I haven't had that problem with a original factory regulator but those are expensive so all the rebuilders use cheap parts that don't work as well or last.

The last issue about the voltage dropping when it cold or at night raises the question of is your alternator able to provide the current you need when the headlights and other high current accessories are on (like the vent blower is running). The original alternators might be considered undersized at 65 and 75A.

Over time I've replaced the brushes on both the alternator and the blower motor. I've lost a couple of part store alternators that I installed when I didn't have a good OEM handy, one to no output which my redtop got me home from, another to 16+v which blew both headlights and boiled the said redtop.

 

[Car Cannibal]

Alternator is a custom rebuilt, 160amp.
I've got an updated alt to battery wiring so I'm not on old wires either. It helped but it's not gonna cure this constant alt issue of....

After say 15k miles, the idle volts drop drastically. I'm looking to bump the idle volts higher than 12v after warm. It only does after the cars warmed up and getting beat up from heat after so many years/ miles.

The internal regulator is probably still good, it'll hold 13.5+ while cruising etc but the idle, it starts to drop and then eventually seems like the alternator goes dead if i don't get it rebuilt soon.

But this cycle is getting old, that's my main reason too, I think the internals might still be good but I don't really know.

Correct, these cars have a rough voltage drop at night and when accessories are on, even Ruth my 160amp it's a decent drop.

 

[Stapl3]

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1g-alternator-voltage-sensing-wire.378936/

Unfortunately the photos are now gone. I'd kill to have 15v to redline.

 

[steve]

I didn't have his photos, most of them were of this replacement Alternator Relay but I didn't have some pictures of said relay which are in the thread now.