Is this alt. OK ?

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I have no experience with that one but I wouldn't go with a one wire.
Mine and at least one other member here has one that has a parasitic drain of power from the battery when not running.
 
dan filipi":2q8noymc said:
I have no experience with that one but I wouldn't go with a one wire.
Mine and at least one other member here has one that has a parasitic drain of power from the battery when not running.

Can you check the diodes without voiding the warranty? And what might the single wire style have to do with the defect?
 
scdmarx":252ahgnz said:
dan filipi":252ahgnz said:
I have no experience with that one but I wouldn't go with a one wire.
Mine and at least one other member here has one that has a parasitic drain of power from the battery when not running.

Can you check the diodes without voiding the warranty? And what might the single wire style have to do with the defect?

There's no way to control the field on a one wire.
With a field exciter connection power is removed when not running, when connected to the switched ignition source.
My one wire Denso is on it's second regulator. The first one suddenly started putting out 16 volts.
That one and the one I have now will kill the battery in a month if left connected.
 
Ken L.":bjgiuy0e said:
OK, so which alternator is recommended, smallest and lightest? With about 50 to 80 amps output.

Ken L.
The alternator at that link might be ok but without seeing it its hard to know how large it is.

The one I use is a mini Denso.
It's 45 amp, plenty of power but I have to wonder if I'm overloading it having had to replace the internal regulator after just 10k miles.

There is a mini Denso out there, puts out 60 amps. Might be a better choice.
I think there was a part number floatin around here somewhere.
Anyone remember where that is?
 
Could power a relay through the running lights and run the single wire alternator through the relay. Then no parasitic drain.
 
As Dan said I would stay away from a one wire, I had to put a relay in my one wire as there was a couple of times after shutting off the bike I could hear a faint hum from the alt.
So instead of a wire running from the key switch to the alt. I now have one running to a relay.
I think this is the one I am running.
https://www.dbelectrical.com/p-4700-new- ... 12180.aspx
Jerry
 
flash2002":1vecl8e7 said:
What if you install a Blocking Diode from the alternator to the battery, would that not fix the problem of the battery drain.
Something like that should work.
Need one that can handle the current, same with a relay..
 
dan filipi":s9iwf4te said:
scdmarx":s9iwf4te said:
dan filipi":s9iwf4te said:
I have no experience with that one but I wouldn't go with a one wire.
Mine and at least one other member here has one that has a parasitic drain of power from the battery when not running.

Can you check the diodes without voiding the warranty? And what might the single wire style have to do with the defect?

There's no way to control the field on a one wire.
With a field exciter connection power is removed when not running, when connected to the switched ignition source.
My one wire Denso is on it's second regulator. The first one suddenly started putting out 16 volts.
That one and the one I have now will kill the battery in a month if left connected.
Sorry I am late to the game. In marine, we have to kill all power from alternators after shutdown to prevent not only parasitic drain, but any DC voltage passing through ground unchecked can create a severe corrosion problem on boats.

As a result, all alternators have the field wire controlled from either a fuel pressure switch or oil pressure switch. The field than can only energize the alternator when oil or fuel pressure is available (obviously only when the engine is running). Likewise, when the engine stops and pressure is off, the field is cutoff and the alternator denergizes.
 
mcgovern61":18tqdj09 said:
As a result, all alternators have the field wire controlled from either a fuel pressure switch or oil pressure switch. The field than can only energize the alternator when oil or fuel pressure is available (obviously only when the engine is running). Likewise, when the engine stops and pressure is off, the field is cutoff and the alternator denergizes.

THAT sounds like the perfect solution to the drain issue, Gerry. :good: Just need a relay that will handle the amperage going thru it, and it's a done deal. NO oil pressure, no altynaty. Most electric fuel pumps are wired that way, too.

Funny thing....we've used single wire alternator set-ups on hot-rods and stuff for YEARS, with never an issue of parasitic drain. Don't know about installing a diode tho....the alt has to HAVE 12v at the terminal before it will produce any voltage. If I am reading it right, if you put a "blocking" diode in the power wire to/from the alt, it wouldn't have any way to get it's 12v source voltage...unless I totally missed the point there, which is ENTIRELY possible! :headscratch:
 
May not have noticed the parasitic drain because car batteries are so much higher capacity than our little bike battery.

I found 60 amp relays online, might give one a try.

Using the oil light wouldn't work to supply the negative trigger for the coil because the oil light gets negative to light it when no oil pressure unless using a relay with an 87a connection, normally closed.
 
Don't the single wire units have a post for remote sensing or ignition? It is that post that the pressure switch is hooked up to. On marine single wire alternators, the post is there but there is normally a jumper wire from the post to the positive wire. We remove the jumper and connect the pressure switch to the ign or remote sense pole so that power to the field does not come from the main lug.
 
mcgovern61":2xc3rj0c said:
Don't the single wire units have a post for remote sensing or ignition? It is that post that the pressure switch is hooked up to. On marine single wire alternators, the post is there but there is normally a jumper wire from the post to the positive wire. We remove the jumper and connect the pressure switch to the ign or remote sense pole so that power to the field does not come from the main lug.
As I understand it, the one wire alternators that have been converted to a one wire (In the case of my mini Denso anyway) the regulator is changed and the old post connectors are left in place but not used.

Somehow the single current out post senses the battery voltage and magically produces a postive current and pushes it out. I imagine the one wire regulator can sense that it's not producing what it's connected to so it produces the current to overcome this.
 
I found these 2 schematics if anyone wants to try and make sense of how they work.

3 wire hookup

image.php


One wire hookup

image.php
 
mcgovern61":1wm4g8ym said:
In the one wire diagram, do you see the jumper from batt + to the sensing post? The same as the marine
alternators.
Hmm, interesting.

Wonder if I can make it a sensing by cracking mine open and reconnecting it?
 
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