I have read on here that "Rocket Man is slowing down". Currently turn time is February 11.... as listed on his Web Site. I am thinking he's flying south for the winter.

The information you need to make your own shunt is in the link in Post 3, scroll down to post 9. You will see a drawing that has the specs needed.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post14726314

I would start with a 2 foot wire, one size smaller the what you have.
Be warned, this is going to be extremely difficult to dial in.

Think of the shunt as a current divider, 1/60 of the current flows through the amp meter amd the remaining 59 amps through the Shunt Wire.

Good luck, Jim

 

In the above photo, the reading are... 00.1 volts and 0.51 amps

This also represents the alternator producing 30 amps, if you have a 60 amp alternator.
I was considering making a Shunt after my 3G conversion. My target was 50 amps at the needle movement shown in the photo and 100 amps at the "C" mark.
Note: the needle movement will go past the "C" allowing additional needle movement.

I gave up on this idea because the needle movement, for say a 10 AMP discharge was to small to notice.

I had also considered using a mega fuse, as a Shunt. This was experimental and untested.
It's a dangerous experiment as it extremely easy to send to much current through the AMP Meter, and smoke it.

Good luck, Jim

 

I broke down and sent my ammeter to RCC. I have a question though. Will the alternator/Voltage regulator charge without the gauge in place? I have everything wired per the diagram, but my volt meter, hooked up to the battery, doesn't show any charge. As a matter of fact, it shows slightly lower voltage when running. I want to get the vehicle back to the owner till I get the gauge back. Thanks for the help.

 

Yes the alternator will work without an AMP Meter in place.

Back in post 8 you said you found the red and yellow wires that go the the original AMP Meter. These wires should not be connected to anything at this point. Tape off the end of each wire with electric tape.
After you install the RCC volt meter, you will use these to power the volt meter.
Red for the volt meter positive.
Yellow for the volt meter negative.

Do you have a stock 1G Ford alternator?
If so we need to troubleshoot this.
Did it used to charge the battery, around 14 volts at idle?

Jim

 

As far as I know, it is the original 1g alternator, and yes, I'm pretty sure it did charge @ 14+-volts.

 

As the truck original had an AMP Meter, ( no change light), the following troubleshooting applies for a 1G ALT.

Starting with the voltage regulator. (VR)
You should have constant battery power on the "A" terminal.
The "F" terminal is the field wire. From the VR straight to the alternator field connection.
The "S" connection has key ON power (12v). This is what brings the alternator online. I would check this first.

On the alternator, the large outpost (BAT) should have battery voltage all the time.

On a side note, for safety sake, make sure you still have fusable links installed.

If all this checks good, you can do a "full field test" on the alternator, or remove it and take it to the auto parts store for testing.

Jim

 

Hi Tommy. I’m a little late to the party, and you’ve been given some great advice from Jim and others. But I think I see a trend here with your previous questions.
I think you’re under the misconception that the gauges serve the same function as a warning lamp. They do not.
Neither an ammeter nor a voltmeter have anything to do with the actual function of the alternator.
They are simply monitors that tell you what’s going on.
Both are handy to have, but I think moving to the voltmeter was the right choice in this situation.
Hopefully it doesn’t take too long.

The point is, neither of them are required to let the alternator do its job.
A warning lamp on the other hand, is absolutely part of the circuit that energizes/excites the voltage regulator to tell the alternator to charge when the engine is running.
There is a resistor (sometimes even a diode I guess?) that is simply for bypassing the bulb if the bulb ever burns out.
Without the resistor bypass, if the bulb burned out the 12V signal to the regulator would be interrupted. Causing it to stop charging.

so you need to go back and find out why your alternator doesn’t seem to be working. Using Jim’s rebel advice to test the wiring harness at the regulator, you should see a constant 12 V on the yellow wire, a switch 12 V on the green with red wire, and don’t worry about the orange wire yet. Other than that, it needs to have a good connection to the alternator.
The “full fielding“ test that was mentioned, is simply connecting the yellow wire to the orange wire to see if the alternator starts charging. If it does not, either the alternator is faulty, the wiring is faulty or you have some other buried issues somewhere. I can’t think of anything other than those two though.

anyWho, just wanted to mention that about the light versus the gauges and the function of the charging system.

 

TY. I had the alternator tested yesterday an Advance Auto, and it tested good. I picked up another V/R yesterday, but haven't swapped it yet. To my knowledge, this vehicle has never had a light, always a gauge. I was pretty sure about the alt not needing the gauge to function, I just wasn't sure if the shunt wire had anything to do with it. I'm going to test it in a few minutes as suggested above, and cross my fingers.

 

Before you install the new regulator, or any regulator for that matter, don’t connect power to it until it is bolted to the body for a good ground.
In fact, on our trucks, there should be a small black ground wire with the ring terminal attached under one of the screws. This goes all the way back to the alternator body.
So if you have completely rewired it using non-stock wire, make sure you add the ground.
If I remember correctly, this guarantees that the alternator and regulator share the same ground potential.
The other thing you can do before you connect it, is check for voltage on the two wires in question. The yellow wire should have full battery voltage. I suppose one or 2/10 of a volt difference is acceptable, but on that wire I would rather see exact battery voltage.
The green with red stripe wire should have 12 V with the key in the ON position.

 

OK I got back out to work on it a little today, and I did get it wired correctly. Battery power to the batt terminal on the alt. 12V switched to the S terminals on the alt and VR. The field wire had 0 volts at the atl, but if I applied batt voltage to B+ volts to it, it started charging. Sounds to me like the VR has bit the dust. Opinions?

 

First off, remove the switched power from the S post of the alternator. It doesn’t have one.
Should be an “STA“ post for a stator wire.
Where yours doesn’t have or need one, I don’t think.
Not unless you have an electric choke from the factory. Which didn’t normally start until 73, unless factory carburetor was retrofitted with a factory electric choke.

Other than that, you could have a bad regulator.
Regulators are right up there on the top of the list with starter relays and carburetors and other electro mechanical devices that are often faulty right out of the box. So don’t assume it’s good.
You proved that the Alternator is good, along with the test that they did at the store, with the full fielding test. So you’re good there.
Just have to make sure that the orange field wire is connected to the FLD post and it sounds like it is. Because when you applied 12 V to that, it worked.
Unless you applied it directly to the post? Did you simply connect the yellow and orange wires together at the connector? If so, then that proves out that the orange wire is still good and the fault lies within either the connector or the regulator.

 

I was going by the diagram in post #8 which shows the choke wire going to the S wire on the alternator. It does have an Edelbrock carb with an electric choke, which runs off of a switched IGN fuse. I use a Power Probe which allows me to make something positive or negative. With the orange wire on the FLD terminal, I put 12V+ and the alt started charging. So, where does the stator on the alt connect to?

 

Nowhere.
No stator wire needed in your case because you said your aftermarket choke already has keyed power going to it. And this truck has an ammeter instead of a warning lamp, so the stator wire is not used at the regulator either.
So the stator terminal on the back of the alternator remains blank/empty.

 

I don't have an IGN terminal on my VR. what triggers the alt? According to the diagram in post #8 above, it looks like S terminal on the VR is tied straight to B+. Is that correct?

 

OK now I have nothing on the SAT term on the alt, battery power on the alt batt terminal and swithced 12V going to the GN/RD term on the VR S term. It's charging all right, @ 18V when running. VR is grounded and I'm going to run a wire from VR ground to the ground term on the alt.