Alternator gets hot fast
 

Getting real hot right after start up. Took apart and bearings seem fine and greasy. I did grease them awile back. Its a converted to one wire on street strip car that's mostly strip. Thanks.

DO you have a voltmeter installed?
Might be overcharging making it hot?


:confused:

"Converted" how?

No more external voltage regulator connected to nuke things. 1963 everything is still there but looks stock but internal vg and only one working wire.

narrow Belt running down in the bottom of the groove? saw one of those once. Also It may only get hot really quickly if it was outputting into a very high load at low alt shaft speed.. original fan on the alt?

george

So you installed an alternator that was designed to be 1 wire.

I'd start where John Wallace suggested. Check the alternator output voltage a minute or so after starting.

It would also be interesting to know how many amps the alternator is putting out a minute or so after starting. I keep an old under-dash ammeter with about 2 foot long wires with alligator clips on the end as a troubleshooting tool. Disconnect the "one wire", clip one wire of the ammeter to the "one wire" and the other ammeter wire to the stud on the alternator. Start the car leaving all electrical thingies turned off, goose the throttle once to get the alternator charging and read amps after a minute. Should be less that 10 amps, probably less that 5.

Its an original converted to a 1 wire. Its a 63 tempest an all the power goes thru the amp meter first. Nuked a few so its bypassed (I do miss it). I shoulda at least checked the voltage before removing. I'll take your advise. thanks

Bypassing the ammeter because you "nuked a few" is like putting lipstick on a pig. Problem still exists.

check the battery terminals make sure they are tight and clean sometimes the obvious gets the better of us

Got any pics of the alternator? I'd like to see an original 1963 alternator converted to one wire. It's probably a latter model alternator that has been converted.

Sensor wire on a 10-SI internal regulator alternator
 

Just my opinion but a 10-SI alternator with the "sense" wire routed right over to the output lug is NOT the way to wire a passenger car alternator.

A good way to wire it is shown in this example:

If everything else looks fine ... belt slippage can heat it up fast if it's under a lot of charging load.

Belt slippage due to too narrow of a belt or loose belt will heat up the alt core from belt friction and poor cooling due to the alt fan not moving enuf air relative to electrical output level.

George