I just bought a new high amp alternator,and it says it can be hooked up as a 1 or 3 wire.The problem i'm having is i want to run it as a 3 wire,i know 1 of the wires is to the battery,i just dont know which other 2 are supposed to be used,i thought it would be the side plug,but according to the place i bought it from,you dont use the side plug,so i'm confused,here is a quote from the ad about the hookup.It came from skip white,anybody have an idea how this hooks up for 3 wire,if you dont use the side plug?

"This alternator is a direct replacement on 73 and up Chevy vehicles, till approx 86, but can be used on earlier vehicles before 1973. NO EXTRA WIRING NEEDED. ONE WIRE TO THE BATTERY IS ALL THAT IS NEEDED ON THIS MODEL, OR YOU MAY HOOK IT UP AS OEM ALT HOOKED UP. It hooks up exactly as the oem unit does, minus the side plug. The voltage regulator is internal. This gives you the opportunity to eliminate the external voltage regulator as well as the mass of wires going to it on vehicles before 73."

 

Seems to be contradicting itself. Says it's a one wire, but can be hooked up like factory, but as a one wire???? Normally the plug is the factory connection and they are numbered #1 and #2, which are regulator and volt meter or idiot light. I believe #1 is the latter.
On mine I jumped from the batt. terminal to #2 to make it a one wire and didn't use #1 at all. I think I'd give the company a call and get clarification on their useless instructions.
Never heard of "hook upa" alternators.

 

So basically what they're saying is you hook up the main battery wire on the alternator, as the factory one was, but don't use the other two (plug) wires. The way they word it is goofy, but probably like that so somebody doesn't ask "but what about those other two wires"? Their instruction method for trying to avoid confusion, apparently causes confusion. It's a one-wire alternator....nuff said!

 

That's because it's brand new,i just came up with the name this morning haha.Not sure what happened there,i was rushing to type it before i left for work,and didn't read over it before i posted it lol,i fixed it now though.

As for contacting them,skip white is just the middle man,and obviously they dont have a very good understanding on the hookup,so i contacted the manufacturer directly and they weren't alot of help either.I asked them if i want to run it as a 3 wire,do i use the plug on the side for the other 2 wires.The response i got was that there are 2 prongs under the black rubber plug,which i had already told them i seen,so they basically just agreed that they were there,and to pay a certified mechanic to hook it up haha,they said thats why they dont include instructions because they want you to take it to a shop to get it installed haha,glad to see they have a good tech department.It has a lifetime warranty,so i'm going to hook up the battery wire and the plug on the side,and if it fries it,they can replace it since thier tech agreed that yeah there are 2 prongs haha.

 

If that was the case,then they really dont know what they are saying,because it is listed through them and directly through the manufacturer as a 1 or 3 wire hook up,which is why the "minus the side plug" part makes absolutely no sense at all haha.

 

It won't fry. A "self exciting" voltage regulator (what you have) gets activated by the magnetism from the alternator's rotor fields, after the engine gets to a certain rpm (usually once you tap the throttle past 2k). Hooking that regulator externally to an exciter wire will just make it activate as soon as the engine starts. Those instructions are still screwy and cornfusing though. Possibly it was translated from a foreign language.

 

Cool,thanks for letting me know,i dont know anything about the voltage regulator,so i wasn't sure if hooking it up that way was going to work or not.Really the only reason i wanted to run the 3 wire set up is to have the volt meter working anyway,plus the fact that if i ever need to put the old alternator back on.then i would already have all the wiring there and ready.As far as the directions being translated,that is a very good possibilty,when i contacted what is listed as the manufacturer,they are a U.S. company,but being thier tech guy didn't have a clue,i'm thinking maybe they are just another distributor and not the manufacturer,because it seems that if your company makes the product,that you would have some idea as to how it works haha.