Nop

I went home right after unwrapping the cables from the horn relay to the gen, at home I thought my eyes are bad: The generator wires are reversed.

First off, my original external regulator is still mounted and wired but sprayed over in black completely. Cables look stock, but I did not (yet) scratch them to see if the colors are right.

gen_wiring.jpg

The plug at the generator is a replacement part (red/black) and it's wired the wrong way around:

My #1 is wired to white, #2 to blue.

As far as I know...

Generator terminal #1 (excite) is blue and gets connected to regulator brown when bypassing/bridging the external regulator. That brown then goes to the idiot light which "provides excitement" to the generator.

Generator terminal #2 (sense) is white and gets connected to regulator red when bypassing/bridging the external regulator (or to the horn relay) for remote sensing voltage.

This is what I distilled from my search, feel free to use it here on the forums in future:

gen_wiring_new.jpg

Now, the gen-warning idiot light works as it should, the generator is charging (voltmeter), and yes' I have seen the schematics here at CO for "alt to gen" conversions. I also know hat the 12si is likely to start charging even without #1 connected. It's the working idiot light that strikes me....

May I reverse white and blue at the generator and bypass the ext regulator without risking a carbequeue?

Ed:

Good mornig.

Found this page which (for me) adds to the confusion:

Buick internally regulated (from 1973 manual):

Regler_exern.jpg

* Gen #1: Blue, exciter
* Gen #2: white, sense

OK, this matches many conversion schemes, for example a picture joe_padavano posted:

new_alternator_wiring_pic2.JPG

* Gen #1: Blue, exciter
* Gen #2: white, sense
* External regulator bridged

A diagram for Buick externally regulated (from 1970 manual):

Regler_intern.jpg

* Gen #1: Blue, exciter
* Gen #2: white, sense
* With the Buick regulator, this page says to bridge F to 3 and 2 to 4 - different connectors but electrical identical to the previous GM solution.

I guess I'll have to clear my head and start over.

First check the wire colors at my regulator today, correctly bridge them as to the pic Joe posted a few times and then adjust white/blue at the generator.

joe_padavano

You're putting waaaay too much thought into this. The blue and white wires are artifacts of the external regulator. All that really matters for an SI-family internal regulator alternator is that terminal #1 (excite) on the alternator is eventually connected to the brown wire that goes to the GEN light and terminal #2 is eventually connected to the red wire that goes to the terminal stud on the horn relay. The electrons in the copper neither know nor care about the color of the insulation in between those points. This is what is shown in the 73 Buick wiring diagram you posted. The use of the blue and white wires is simply a convenience to avoid cutting the stock harness when converting. If they were swapped at the regulator end by the P.O. (white to brown and blue to red, instead of as shown in my conversion diagram) then that would explain why they are connected as you show in your photo. Trace each wire all the way back and if they are correctly connected (brown to #1 and red to #2), then don't sweat the colors in between.

Nop

It's getting even better...

That's your opinion from a distance.

I well know that, but I also know red paint makes cars go faster!

Now the fun begins:

The wires were definitely swapped at the gen, as you can see in my image.

I disconnected everything and traced the wires: Blue at the gen is blue at the regulator, white at the gen is white at the regulator - not another swap of colors somewhere along the line.

The regulator was a solid state type, I drilled the rivets to have a look inside as it seemed very light. The wires at the regulator were connected the right way, I removed the black paint.

So it has definitely been working with gen #1 and #2 swapped - including a "gen" idiot light that was correctly on when cranking and off when the engine ran.

Did take a deep breath and as it was already opened, did a straight "russian conversion" (TM) of the regulator:





As with all my pictures: Free to use.

Swapped Gen #1 and #2, checked twice, everything is OK and runs. Hooray. Volt meter shows a slightly higher voltage because the new remote sensing line is longer of course.

the reason for my headache last evening (Don't worry, I was in fact able to sleep well): I did have a look ath the cables at the regulator and did see that at least blue is at the right prong.