I have a 1960 F250 4x4. It has the factory 4-speed and drivetrain except the old 292 was replaced with a 428 before I bought it. The engine runs great but the battery is not charging. The alternator is externally regulated. The electrical system uses a positive ground.

I pulled the ground off of the battery while the engine was running and the engine died out. I also put a voltage meter on the alternator terminals, while the engine was idling, and they showed no output.

Are these sufficient tests to see if the alternator is the problem?

If so, I will replace it, Although I am curious about converting to an internally regulated alternator.

What is needed to change over to an internally regulated alternator? Obviously, I'm not really worried about keeping things original. I am looking for simplicity and reliability. I would like to try to stick with the same brackets/setup. Would this be a good solution?

Any help will be appreciated.

 

If you have a modern alternator that came with the 428 on the engine, then the positive ground is not going to work, and may have possibly burnt up the alternator.

Check to see if you have a modern coil and make sure the negative of the coil goes to the points. Also make sure you do not have a positive ground radio or anything like that. You should now be able to put the negative on ground like it's supposed to be.

Then hook the alternator up like the above diagram. Do not pull the battery cable off for a test. This will probably not hurt anything on your truck since it is old, but it is a bad habit to get into since it can burn up electronic ignitions, computers and fancy stereos. Get a meter and read the battery voltage with the truck off. Then read it again with the truck running. If it's higher with the truck running, it is charging.

 

Thanks for the info. I did what you said and the alt. was not charging. I bought a new one and all is well, now. It is also now a neg. ground. I am still left with a question, though...

The wire on the voltage regulator that is supposed to be hooked to the ignition was cut. The ignition was replaced by an after market piece and it appears they bypassed the harness and just clipped a bunch of wires. Every thing seems to be functioning fine without that wire connected...

Any insight into that?

P.S. Where can I get my hands on wiring diagrams for this truck? I would love to get things straight without having to rely on other people as much.

Thanks again, sincerely.

 

I am not sure I am following your question about the charging circuit. It should be hooked up like the diagram above. If it is wired like above but without the ign wire going to the "S" of the regulator, I don't know why it is still charging.

What is confusing me is most of the wiring is going to have to be custom or modified in the charging circuit, because your 1960 truck had a positive ground generator(as far as I can tell) originally. This is a totally different animal. Most everything else can stay the same as long as it was 12 volts.

 

All of the wiring in the engine compartment has been changed, clipped, cut or modified it seems. I'm not sure how it is all working either.
I'm going to spend some time tracing wires around so I can get a more accurate
picture of what is going on under the hood.

I have another 1960 F250 4x4 with the 223 and a generator. It has untouched wiring and it looks completely different.

The solenoid is wired different in the 428 truck. The wires have been changed and they are not the right colors. There are two posts on the solenoid between the wire from the baterry and the wire to the starter. On the 223 truck, both posts have wires on them. On the 428 truck only the post closest to the front has a wire.

I'm confused. The truck seems to run fine. I'm going to keep messing around until I figure this thing out.

 

That is what I figured.

I know the answer to that one. One of the small terminals gets voltage from the key and or the neutral safety switch to activate the relay itself. If you touch the battery + to this one terminal, the engine will start turning over.

The other terminal sends out 12 volts during cranking. This wire that is missing should go to the coil +. Here's why;

The ignition coil + is fed from the keyswitch through a resistor. This resistor lowers the voltage a little bit while the truck is running to keep the coil cool and make the points last longer. The resistor is either a large white looking thing on the firewall, or it's a special wire made into the harness. But, to make the truck start better in cold weather, the factory bypasses this resistor during cranking only. This is what the extra terminal on the relay is for. It sends out 12 volts over to the coil +, giving a hotter spark during cranking. When you release the starter, this drops out and the coil gets it's power to run through the resistor.

This is something you should check by the way. Take a voltage reading on the coil + with the engine running. It should be something less than 12 volts(usually around 9 or so).

If you have any more specific questions like this, keep asking.