Hey, Stuart
When I decided to improve the wiring under my hood (a year after I did the EZ-Wire install on the truck), I did a number of things.
One was to place two terminal blocks on the firewall which delivers a full 14 volts to important stuff like my fusebox (on the interior side of the firewall), the alternator, my headlights and electric fan ... and also talks to the internal regulator (note the #2 wire in the drawing), so it is reading what's
truly being fed to everything, right there at the source of voltage delivery. I also employed relays and fusible links:
[img]
http://www.alanhorvath.com/54chevy/chevypics/wiring_2.jpg[/img]
Then, being a fan of
MadElectrical.com , I ordered his
Alternator Wiring Kit which included a diode ... I knew nothing about diodes, so I called him and asked about it.
The diode keeps electricity flowing in
one direction only ... it's placed on the #1 wire of the alternator (see drawing above) and stops the electricity from flowing back to the ignition, which causes "engine run-on."
Before the diode was installed, when I would turn my ignition off I didn't really get "run-on" but I could tell the engine would hesitate about a second before actually stopping. After I installed the diode, I was really impressed at how the engine
really stopped instantly at ignition turn-off!
NOTE: You can buy a 4-pack of diodes from Radio Shack for only $3 or $4:
Part #1N4001. You'll notice that one end of the diode is marked with two stripes --
that end needs to be pointed towards the alternator.
