Funny thing is I just stumbled across the wiring diagram book for my truck in some papers last night. Not sure how that got packed to go to Kuwait... I need to sit down with that tonight and reread this thread to see if it will make more sense.
To be clear, I have a Delco Remy 1102473 55amp internally regulated alternator in the truck. I simply asked the question earlier to try to get smarter on alternator and ammeter function. I posted another thread a couple of years ago about my ammeter. Right now it only shows discharge when electrical items are turned on (lights, radio, heater etc.). As electrical demand increases the needle drops further towards discharge and stays there. It never returns to TDC until all the electrical items are switched off.
When I got the truck the wiring under the dash was a mess. After of lot of time with a multi-meter and the wiring diagram, I slowly cut out a small pile of wires that came from/went to nowhere. It appears that when the original 235 was taken out and the 78-79 250 was put in its place the previous owner grabbed the engine wiring harness from the other truck and shoe horned it into mine. He only hooked up what was necessary to get the truck running. That is why there was so much dead end wiring under the dash/hood.
My theory is that during the engine swap and "re-wiring" of the engine harness, not all the required wires were hooked back up to the ammeter. That is why it only moves toward discharge and never shows any charging. The truck ran fine for over a year and never had a dead battery so I'm confident the charging system is functioning correctly, it just doesn't show on the gauge.
All that being said, I'd like the gauge to function as designed. When I return to the states I'll have to run all the necessary wiring in accordance with the wiring diagram to get it to work properly. I don't have any current plans to go to a bigger alternator. I was schooled on here that bigger isn't necessarily better. Its kind of like slapping a big 4 barrel carburetor on you Stovebolt because you believe that the bigger carb has to make more power. "If I'm running a 375cfm carb now than a 600cfm 4 barrel will give me twice as much power." Doesn't work that way! You only need what you need.
Wow. I that was a bit of a ramble and I may have hijacked this thread. I'm really only interested in expanding my knowledge of automobile electricity. It is one of my weakest areas.
