Charging system with one wire alt.

I have a one wire alt. and when car is running volt meter says 18 volts and battery gets warm is this normal ???

no it is not .sounds like it needs re do. the regulator is bad

Yep, anything above 14.1 with a wetcell battery or 13.8 with a drycell is overcharging. Check the voltmeter with a second one, could be off.

Don

Mine did that a few years back. Just before blowing the battery up and melting a lot of wires. Mine was due to a bad internal regulator. You need to get that problem solved before it turns tragic. A fire inside your car is not what you want or need while cruising down the road.:eek:

After my little problem, the regulator was replaced and the alt converted to three wires. No problems since.

I also think you need a new regulator, nothing what so ever is wrong with the one wire regulators vs the three wire. The difference is very simply a different way the regulator is turned off and on. The SE regulators are just self excited vs the three wire which get there input from elsewhere. Get you a new SE regulator and your good to go.

RS

I have always prefered to run a trigger wire off the ACC side of the ign and use the regular regulator..I doubt that the SE regs are any more likely to fail than the stock ones.

Personally, I don't like to see anything over 14.5 15 is overkill. 18 is a battery explosion waiting to happen.

what amp and voltage is normal for the one wire alt to be charging a optima red top?