mplangley
Veteran Member
So I have a problem I have been attempting to chase down.
With the engine running I read the volts at my starter battery at an initial 16 volts and that climbs to 18+ volts before I shut the engine down.
My Alternator is a 24Volt Prestolite Leece-Neville One Wire Alternator. All of my batteries are new. I took my alternator to a shop and the guy tested it and said it was good. He did curiously ask me "Is this a 24 Volt alternator". I assume he say it was putting out more than 12 volts.
I actually have two questions
1.) Shouldnt the regulator shut down the charge at roughly 14 volts regardless of the fact its a 24 volt alternator?
Perhaps another way of asking this is absent any other devices am I wrong to use a 24Volt Alt on a 12 volt battery system? I actually did this by accident because my old alternator went and they replaced it with the 24volt Alt. I did not notice the difference.
2.) On a one wire Alternator how does the regulator know when to limit the output? I never understood how this works as opposed to alternators with a "sensing" wire.
thanks
P.S - Another part of the mystery is that my side A and B banks charge at different voltage. I assume there is a wiring problem here an perhaps Side B is really not getting any charge at all. The alt puts out only a single charge so I assume that whatever is causing the low/different charge is not related to an alternator problem. But perhaps this mystery explains the other?
With the engine running I read the volts at my starter battery at an initial 16 volts and that climbs to 18+ volts before I shut the engine down.
My Alternator is a 24Volt Prestolite Leece-Neville One Wire Alternator. All of my batteries are new. I took my alternator to a shop and the guy tested it and said it was good. He did curiously ask me "Is this a 24 Volt alternator". I assume he say it was putting out more than 12 volts.
I actually have two questions
1.) Shouldnt the regulator shut down the charge at roughly 14 volts regardless of the fact its a 24 volt alternator?
Perhaps another way of asking this is absent any other devices am I wrong to use a 24Volt Alt on a 12 volt battery system? I actually did this by accident because my old alternator went and they replaced it with the 24volt Alt. I did not notice the difference.
2.) On a one wire Alternator how does the regulator know when to limit the output? I never understood how this works as opposed to alternators with a "sensing" wire.
thanks
P.S - Another part of the mystery is that my side A and B banks charge at different voltage. I assume there is a wiring problem here an perhaps Side B is really not getting any charge at all. The alt puts out only a single charge so I assume that whatever is causing the low/different charge is not related to an alternator problem. But perhaps this mystery explains the other?