Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Electrical question - non Morgan

I know there are some very knowledgeable folk on here so I’m asking a simple but specific question as I can’t get a straightforward answer on the morris minor forum for some reason.

I’m in the process of doing an alternator conversion as the dynamo has packed in (the minor boys go off on a tangent here giving me all the pros and cons of keeping it original!)

I’ve bought a conversion kit from a reputable supplier (another tangent opportunity) but the fixing instructions are quite sketchy - literally

I understand reasonably well how the ‘theoretical’ wiring should be but I need confirmation about what this will be in practice

These are my thoughts and questions

Remove Large Yellow wire between Dynamo and D Terminal of Control Box

Remove Large Yellow/Green Wire from Dynamo and F Terminal of Control Box

Disconnect thinner Yellow wire from D Terminal on Control box (Charge Warning Lamp) and connect to small wire from alternator (IND)

Connect Large Wires from Alternator (Both of them) to Solenoid connection that is fed directly from the battery


But as I plan to retain the control box as a junction box only can any confirm the following will be OK?

Remove the E earth wire from the control box and connect to a known good earthing point on the body (necessary or not?)

Leave all the heavy brown wires on A and A1 as they are connected together inside the control box.

It’s the last two bits I can’t get clarification about.

Anyone here help?

To save long description I'm borrowing the following wiring diagrams from the Land Rover Series 2 club. First is the petrol version with negative earth which shows the dynamo wiring with external regulator. Yours should be similar assuming same battery polarity, wiring colour codes as well maybe, being generic.




Below is same after alternator conversion. Note the dynamo regulator can be retained for originality and used as a junction point providing A1 and A terminals are joined at the back since this legacy control is not needed with alternator. This can save on need for fresh wiring.

right, thanks

so A1 and A are SWITCHED and need bridging

and E is already EARTHED

- brill

Gary

Not switched as such, A1 and A terminals split electrical loads with a third bobbin providing current as well as voltage control for dynamo. Earlier two bobbin types just the latter with a single A terminal. This is why you need to join them together at the back when wiring in the simpler alternator with built in regulator, if retaining wiring to vehicle loads. The old regulator is then not used electrically at all other than an alternator to load junction point as shown in second diagram.

Mine has two bobbins and it looks like A is connected to A1 with a fat coil around one bobbin.

I would still connect A and A1 together before coil as shown in second diagram. If the coil burnt out you would loose half your electrics not to mention volt drop through it. An alternative would be to piggy back all feeds to one terminal noting the A terminal typically has a larger spade connection.

The rationale back in the day of having the two feeds was that the A terminal connected direct to battery carrying heavier current starter solenoid, horn and auxiliary power sockets, all typically unfused and all bypassing the ammeter. A1 supplied other loads and had regulator current sensing via thick winding on bobbin and I believe a second thinner voltage winding to better regulate and save having third bobbin. It was this feed that had the ammeter in series/shunt with it.

BTW would strongly advise removing ammeter, if you had one, after adding alternator. Even the lowest output current one would exceed the typical 30-0-30 ammeter current capabilities. When alternators took over so did limited range voltmeters for battery monitoring.

No yellow wires either.



No idea why the image is odd looking!

Its the tm-img stretch of submitted portrait aspect photo's Gary. It insists on displaying them in landscape aspect even though other picture hosting websites using same software source don't. Probably a simple setting change is all thats needed.

As noted in my other reply, it's probably because the image is in an unsupported format uploaded direct from a phone. If the image is edited or exported as a jpg it will get loaded correctly.

Conversion completed

All very straightforward and worked first time.

Thanks chaps.

Gary