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Hopefully someone can lead me in the right direction. We recently installed an Intellitronix instrument panel in a 79 F100. Everything went relatively smooth. However, the exciter wire isn't exciting the alternator because the original instrument cluster accomplishes that through the ALT light. Problem is, the Intellitronix unit is digital and doesn't have an ALT light to connect to.
So, I'm looking for another place that I can connect my Green w/red stripe coming from the 3G Alternator (continuity tested ok). So that I can excite the alternator at RUN/START.
I thought about connecting it to the switched power of the instrument cluster, but I'm assuming the Exciter wire is just that....it doesn't push power after the car has started only momentarily. (Am I wrong in this thinking?)
Another option is obviously the ignition switch. I'm totally unfamiliar with doing something like that. I've tried to look at the diagrams on FTE, but I'm struggling to understand which terminal to connect to.
Sorry for sounding like a moron, still learning. Thank you for the help.
P.S. I'm working based on this diagram. Where it states "HOT WHEN KEY IS IN RUN/START" does that mean either/or? I's assume START and RUN are 2 separate things.
So, I yanked the ignition switch. Now, it's a matter of which one of these will work for what I need. (Hot when Start/Run). These 2 Red w/blue stripe wires are going into the ST terminal. Can I use one of those? And if so, how? Should I just snip into it, (creating 2 wires). Then Splice the 2 + my exciter wire in parallel?
This is the image I always use when trying to figure out the ignition switch. You have the plug off, this picture shows the pins on the other side of the switch.
Right, I have that diagram, and I'm about to go out with a test light.
1. Should I just snip into the line...thereby making 2 lines, then adding my 3rd in parallel? (Seems weird to do?)
2. Should I just connect to the fuse panel at the location that the instrument lamp would normally be, obviously it would be switched.
I may not be the guy you want to answer this question because of the amount of hackery I have done to a perfectly good, brand new wiring harness to get it to work. With that being said, my original ignition switch had several of those wires split almost immediately coming out of the switch (1 wire to 2 or 3 wires). That let me know I could split 1 to 2. I also ran one of the switched ignition wires to a power block because I replaced my instrument panel, and each instrument needed its own power supply for power and to power the instrument lights. So, I am going something like 1 to 10.
Ok, so I think I have my issue resolved. Since we removed the original cluster, I figured there might be 12v power behind the new cluster that was now capped up and not being used. Sure enough, I was right. So rather than connect to the ignition switch, I connected to 12v switched power.
Hopefully one of you experts doesn't tell me the truck is going to catch on fire a week from now because I'm going to put the instrument cluster back in.
