68 Alternator voltage problems
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 49
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68 Alternator voltage problems
Greetings. My New alternator shows bad when they hook it up at the parts place. I took it off and it bench tested fine and dandy, so I re-installed it. When you put the volt meter directly to the nut on the alternator it reads 12.80 volts.....when I put the meter on the battery I get 12.80 volts. There IS an external voltage regulator bolted to the fender well.....don't know much about that. My question is, what voltage SHOULD my alternator be putting out? could my voltage regulator be bad? why would the voltage be so low coming directly from the alternator?
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 37,637
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From: Crossville TN
The '68 alternator does not have an internal regulator. I doubt if the auto parts store kiddies know anything about such a unit, so they probably are not testing it correctly. That said, I can't tell you how much voltage an stand-alone '68 alternator should provide without the voltage regulator in the system. My "guess" would be about 14.5 volts...but I really don't know and have never tested one to find out.
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 49
Likes: 1
thanks...I replaced the external voltage regulator which also eliminated the old condensor and it totally fixed my problem. charging great now just like it's supposed to. You're totally correct that the autoparts kiddies had no idea how to test it.
