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New owner of a 66 F85. Going over the wiring, the voltage regulator is capped off with a cover that looks factory. The alternator does not have any wires hooked up except for the red battery wire. I found the blue/white wires with connector wrapped up in wire bundle. Curious if this is done at factory and the voltage regulator is in the alternator? A few other questions in pics. Thank You. Is this the horn relay? Is this the trans kick down switch? Cover on voltage reg. Connector? Not sure what this is? Alternator doesn’t have a connection for the blue/white wires.
The cap on the regulator plug is probably a jumper. When converting from external to internal regulation, you can use a jumper to get the alternator excite/idiot light wire from the regulator location to the alternator location. I usually jump the brown to the blue and hook the blue to the excite terminal on the alternator. I am not familiar with the CS series; although, it should have a spot to plug in the excite wire. Remove the "cap" off the regulator plug and test continuity across the pins (assuming there are pins for jumper purposes), then see which wires they correlate to.
Thanks. I’m putting a new correct alternator on, after I check to see if the brown wire has been jumped to the blue at the VR connector, can I go ahead and hook up the connector with the blue and white wire to the new alternator that has the connector on the wires. When I got it last week, they said the starter would not disengage when started. I’m changing the starter and solenoid, ignition switch and jump the neutral switch to see if it will start.
Jake - Welcome to the site & congrats on your recent purchase.
Like anything you need proper tools to work on your '66 f85. It's imperative you own a paperback (used) 1966 OEM (original) GM Oldsmobile Chassis Service Manual (CSM) which demonstrates/illustrates/addresses the operational devices & features of your car. It is your bible. It includes the wiring diagram for your car, as well. Copies are often of very poor quality, lack detail, hard to read, etc. New CSM manuals aren't any better, are costly and are not original. CD/DVD manuals are difficult to use while working on the car and often lack details & are of very poor quality since they were copied from the original(s) and are hard to read. Do some research you might find better prices &/or differences in quality - expect to pay roughly $40 - $85. Again, it is your bible. You might consider the first one in the links I'll provide for you since it also contains a Fisher Body Service Manual which illustrates how your car was assembled by Fisher Body.
Your car has an aftermarket conversion jumper to bypass the regulator to allow the use of an internally-regulated alternator. The jumper at the old regulator connects the blue wire to the brown wire to operate the GEN light and the white wire to the red wire to provide the sense connection. That conversion kit was supposed to include a jumper from the original two-wire alternator connector to the four pin CS130 connector. The white wire should connect to the "S" terminal on the CS130 and the blue wire should connect to the "L" wire. You can ignore the other two terminals on the CS130. This is what that conversion kit is supposed to contain.
As stellar points out you have a CS130 alternator - which was often installed to replace an original alternator - there is no issue with this in and of itself if it was wired correctly. The one item which plagues the CS130 was the ground path and should have an additional ground strap added to it. You don't indicate what alternator you're going to install and evidently plan to remove the CS130 - is the CS130 inoperable? Are you sure it was wired correctly? Does it have an external ground strap? Hate to see you spend money for something which "may" be working but just needs the proper wiring. If you perform a Search (top right corner of any page on this site) you can find numerous threads regarding alternators. You'd be well served to research several of these threads pertaining to the CS130. Note conversion wiring kits. I'll provide you two links (below), but perform your Searches for additional information - takes a little leg work on your part.
