Macrobb
Full Access Member
This.... is not wired correctly.Well lo and behold turns out that someone had eliminated the voltage regulator. Wired in a regulator very simple to do
Bat post on alternator to + post on battery
S post on regulator to wire from harness that is hot when key is on and not when key switch is off
A post on regulator hot all the time wire
F post on the regulator to the field wire on the alternator (the one closest to the front of the alternator ) and screwed the regulator to the fender well and ran a ground wire to one of the screws. And took it for a drive no rotten egg smell batteries not hot no side bulging.
Thanks for all the help
On your regulator, you have 4 terminals: I, A, F and S.
I - should go through an incandescent bulb(dash light or marker bulb) to switched power. Without the bulb, you'll overheat the regulator and it will draw too much power with the engine off.
A - Feedback from alternator. Connect to the battery harness as close as practical to the battery(usually fender well solenoid).
F - FLD terminal on alternator.
S - STA terminal on alternator.
With the key on, engine off, a small bit of power flows through the I terminal(and bulb) into the alternator to "excite" it.
Once the engine is running, the alternator is producing power, which flows back through the STA terminal, which is used for feedback/loop current going into the FLD terminal.
A tells the regulator how much to increase or decrease output to maintain voltage at the battery(A good use of this is if you have a diode battery isolator - put the A terminal on the battery side of the isolator, and the alternator will boost the voltage into the isolator to match the ~1V dropped across it.