WH one wire alternator help

Hmm, can you take another shot of the White w/black wire and it's connector? Looks different from different angles.
And just on a lark, unplug the White wire and then try starting the engine again. I did have one once that only worked with the stator wire unplugged. Almost like it was a 4g in 3g clothing.

Can't hurt, costs nothing, and won't take too long to test.

Paul

DirtDonk said:

Hmm, can you take another shot of the White w/black wire and it's connector? Looks different from different angles.
And just on a lark, unplug the White wire and then try starting the engine again. I did have one once that only worked with the stator wire unplugged. Almost like it was a 4g in 3g clothing.

Can't hurt, costs nothing, and won't take too long to test.

Paul

Click to expand...

Paul (corrected here)

thanks so much for the help. I looked closely at that white wire in the attached photo here - it looked like it was plugged into one of two prongs in that socket but it wasn’t! it’s a single prong in that socket and you can see the silver next to the black wire insulator - it’s sitting loose in that socket acting like it’s plugged in but it’s actually not connected!

I carefully plugged it in and fired it up and I have full voltage!

awesome. i’ll check with WH monday am to see if they shipped a replacement and if they did I’ll cover the round trip postage.

i’m really happy to not have to disassemble this thing again.

i’ll get to work on cleaning up the wires, moving the trans cooler line etc.

awesome

i’m in amperage heaven.
kids bluetooth operates at the stop lights now which is actually a safety feature as i’ve watched them rev if the engine at the stop lights just to keep the amp running.

Hey! Success! What a relief to have it up and running and putting out.

Congrats.

Paul

DirtDonk said:

Hey! Success! What a relief to have it up and running and putting out.

Click to expand...

She's "putting out" now, haha. Glad it was an easy fix.

DirtDonk said:

You are correct that it's a ground. Sort of an "auxiliary" or "backup" ground if you will.

Click to expand...

I actually consider it the primary ground, as it has a direct line to BAT negative.
The auxiliary grounds are the 10 head bolts and 2 water pump bolts.

Hey CA650, please stop calling Paul Doug.

gr8scott said:

She's "putting out" now, haha. Glad it was an easy fix.



I actually consider it the primary ground, as it has a direct line to BAT negative.
The auxiliary grounds are the 10 head bolts and 2 water pump bolts.

Hey CA650, please stop calling Paul Doug.

Click to expand...

haha YES! my bad Paul i am really sorry and thanks for pointing that out Doug/Paul was too polite - although Doug also knows a lot about fixing broncos

and also in my (weak) defense I was talking to paul about doug in a separate thread.

Wow - feels weird Im not sure what to do
I have a leak free, fully operational, cold running engine, transmission and 130amp non squeaking alternator..

again - thx all.

might be time to re-wire the wakeboard speakers the actual Doug didn’t love the wiring job on those when he was
nice enough to do a 1” body lift for me.

Okay, I get the Paul/Doug connection now. Sounds like that fan is working out for you. Now you can drive it and enjoy it!

gr8scott said:

Okay, I get the Paul/Doug connection now. Sounds like that fan is working out for you. Now you can drive it and enjoy it!

Click to expand...

yes thanks for pointing that out
the back to stock-like fan seems to have way more surface area
the noise is way down too.

my PO had some unusual pulleys on there in which the holes had been drilled out some and some of the bolts were loose so think there was some wobble.

anyway - I know what’s on there now and I can work from there

gr8scott said:

Okay, I get the Paul/Doug connection now. Sounds like that fan is working out for you. Now you can drive it and enjoy it!

Click to expand...

I missed all the excitement... Yes Paul is my older Brother, smarter sometimes, other times no so much ;D

Glad you got her to put out!!!

Haha,

Yes you’ve arrived at the good part! thanks for checking in. I’ll be one of you guys some day with all the bronco advice. i’ve really enjoyed it when it’s done and it works but the middle part is not so fun. I will fix up Masons (kids) speaker wiring and maybe call it a wrap for a while on the work until I get around to the suspension lift. I want that slight rake back to front and a slightly fatter tire on there. I was hoping I could find a 1.5” front and 2.5” rear solution without variable rate springs.

anyway for this WH “one wire” alternator in which some people run 2 wires here is what worked on my mostly stock 302 engine:


The #6013 alternator (https://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/Hi-Output_Alternator_130-Amp/Bronco_Starters) is an actual 1-wire version of the standard 130a 3G

#6025 wire and fuse kit (https://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/Battery_Charge_Cable_AMG_fused/Bronco_Starters) uses 6ga battery cable and a 175a Mega Fuse.

This alternator mount from CVF was expensive but nice because it has a rod with two fisheye sockets you can twist to get the belts as tight as you want and the position won’t slip. and it looks nice.

302-ALTBRKT-D from cvfracing.com

and this two groove alternator pulley which was the hardest part to find
this specific pulley matched the black color of the WH water pump and crank pulleys and it has 2 grooves and it was the right offset from the alternator to align to the other pulleys.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G3949B

Then....for my bronco - which only has the alternator, original EB 302 water pump
and power steering..WITH the WH size water pump and crank pulleys which I am told are stock sizes for the 302

you should be able to use these two belt sizes (or something close) which I had to discover by trial and error:

Napa #7385
Napa #7565

Thanks to advice from Paul (aka other Doug) I ran the small belt on the inside around the inner most alternator pulley groove, water pump and crank
and then a second larger belt that goes all the way around and uses the 2nd alternator pulley groove. That larger belt goes around the water pump, to the power steering and around the lower crank pulley..

DirtDonk said:

Hmm, can you take another shot of the White w/black wire and it's connector? Looks different from different angles.
And just on a lark, unplug the White wire and then try starting the engine again. I did have one once that only worked with the stator wire unplugged. Almost like it was a 4g in 3g clothing.

Can't hurt, costs nothing, and won't take too long to test.

Paul

Click to expand...

PAUL - Happy Thanksgiving!

This reply/post of yours from 2020 just saved me AGAIN here at Thanksgiving time in 2023.

We've had some trouble with this broncos bluetooth amp. The amp was cutting in and out and acting strange. I just put it on the list of things to look into.. forgetting that the amp turns itself off or on based on whether or not it senses the ALTERNATOR IS WORKING! Soon after we lost a starter motor (3rd one in 10 years) this time it was the bearing/sleeve at the top of the starter shaft. These are all napa rebuilt starters. I keep meaning to get a new/high torque, smaller starter but usually when it breaks i need it fixed quickly and there is not time to order from Wildhorses. I'll probably do that this week and get a spare.

Anyway after the starter replacement in the parking lot of Trader joes. The battery was dead. So, no problem we jumped it and the truck ran ok.. for a couple days then died again.. after closer inspection I discovered the battery was not recharging properly and I put the voltage meter on it. It was 12.14v at idle. Not good.
I was guessing the alternator had failed or IDK what. Then I remembered this thread from 3 YEARS AGO.

I re-read the thread and took my own picture posted here on the forum and went down to look at the black and white wire again on the side of this WH One wire alternator. The black and white wire was ONLY PARTIALLY IN ITS SOCKET!?!?! either it jogged free on its own or someone working in the engine bay accidentally tugged it lose weeks ago while working on something else. I reached in there and pushed it and felt it snap into its socket.

I'm back to 14v at idle.

Thanks all over again. Eat some bird and watch the Lion this week! 8-2!!! Restore the roar.

High Voltage is a good thing sometimes!
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

@CA650 you'll love that alternator. I use the same one, purchased in 2011 and still going strong.

These guys are great teachers. You even remembered the lesson .


Next time the hood is up and the engine is running take something metallic and touch it to the back of the alternator by the bearing. You should feel it pull in. That tells you it's charging without a meter . Now you will know the difference when you have one that isn't charging.

Thats good advice. Or alternatively I could have simply trusted the voltage gauge in the cab.

I'm really happy/thankful it was a simple fix. That would have been expensive to let my guy in Burlingame hunt that down. I should have trusted the voltage meter on my gauge cluster. I have a classic instruments bronco gauge, and everything works there if you trust it which I usually don't because there is always something else going on under the hood.

For example: I only recently re-connected the oil pressure sending unit and I had a bad dash switch for the twin tank fuel sending units so both tanks always read empty - so those weren't working, and I swapped a burned-out MSD recently and didn't re-connect the RPM wire so that wasn't working.

Then, I went through and corrected all those things recently and my kid drove off per usual, it's his daily driver, which is crazy, but it is. Mostly reliable for a 50 year old truck with a probably (unclear) original 302 in it.

Anyway, the voltage gauge is a little crude and its numbering jumps from 8v to 13v and when looking at it you can convince yourself its reading ok or close to 13v when its not. So put my voltage meter on the battery and it read 12.14v with the engine off and it jumped all over with flashing=/changing readings that made no sense when the engine was running... so again instead of trusting that gauge i assumed the voltage meter was broken or its batteries low or whatever.. its not uncommon for me to go get a tool or a device like that and find it missing or broken because my kids take them and use them and hose them up lol. But in the end you would think that.. the dash reading low, the voltage meter reading wrong, the blue tooth amp cutting in and out and the dead battery might have been a "clue" idk

If i had looked back at this thread above I would have seen my own post showing how the dash gauge use to read above 13v and it would have been obvious the alternator was not functioning properly.

Now I've got a transmission drip. Likely caused by me driving the truck back from Santa Clara at 4K rpm thinking I was "helping" the nonfunctioning alternator to re-charge the battery. Always something.

Speaking of batteries and power supplies. Does anyone have a good recommendation for:

1) a good battery with the poles reversed so the positive terminal is not sitting so close to the sheet metal grounded side of the engine bay? No i haven't searched before I typed so I will go do that.
2) some type of bus bar or power distribution bar so that I can clean up all the wires that run either directly to the battery or to the solenoid for things like the amp, or the MSD etc.
3) some type of in engine bay fuse box where i can add fuses for some of the modern things that require fuses like the amp etc.


Basically I want to just clean up the wiring inside the engine bay. I've put it off for so long its time to re-route some of that.
It was worse - there was a tangle of wires around the old MSD box that I would just avoid looking at when I opened the hood.. it just looked complicated over there and it seemed to be working etc.

Finally, when the MDS shorted out I was forced to look at it and discovered among other bullsh*t that the MSD itself had a thick ground wire that was never connected, to anything. surprised it ever worked at all. Since thats fixed and the mystery of how the MSD works and is wired is known known to me I think I re-wire everything in that engine bay and hide all the wires and clean up the battery to MSD to solenoid mess.

CA650 said:

2) some type of bus bar or power distribution bar so that I can clean up all the wires that run either directly to the battery or to the solenoid for things like the amp, or the MSD etc.

Click to expand...

I added (L to R)
A) Blue Sea ground bus bar, with ground wires to battery, dura spark2, regulator mount, starter relay mount, headlight relays, core support
B) Headlight relays.
C) Blue Sea fuse block, with 4 fuses.
Visit WestMarine in San Carlos for wire and Blue Sea components.

904Bronco said:

I missed all the excitement... Yes Paul is my older Brother, smarter sometimes, other times no so much ;D

Glad you got her to put out!!!

Click to expand...

Seems like I missed all the excitement again... Glad you figured things out on your own! Electrical issues can be frustrating...

But to be honest, Paul does spend a little more time here than I do, his numbers reflect that. Doug.

Yeah Doug, but remember, it’s quality, not quantity!