I'm switching over to an internally regulated 12 SI alternator. I'm tired of watching the volt meter fall when I'm stopped with the A/C on. I figured that whether the problem was the regulator or the alternator the best fix would be to upgrade the whole thing for just slightly more money. The alternator is in and am just waiting on the conversion plugs from M&H Electric Fabricators (www.wiringharness.com) It looks like they make a slick little conversion kit with a four pronged plug that properly jumps the old four wire plug at the external regular and then an adaptor plug that goes onto the old two pronged plug at the alternator to convert it to the new stlye two pronged plug. I've read through all the info from MAD Electrical on the subject and it looks like it does all the same things for external voltage sensing and warning light retention. My wiring is decent and I'm only jumping to the 78 amp model so I'm not upgrading the output or battery charging wires at this time. I saw the M&H conversion plugs in a Hot Rod from a while back when they were doing a wiring upgrade. Has anyone used the M&H conversion plugs? Any problems?

Also, I would like to take the old external regulator out, but there seems to be some sort of trick. It looks like the small mounting bolts are in some sort of sleeve that just spins. Is there a simple trick I'm missing or is the only way to get these old rusted mounting screws out is to try and hold the sleeve through the back side with a pliers or vise grips??? It doesn't look like the old voltage regulator is going to give up and go quitely!!!

The rubber nuts in the rad support can be a pain. Use a pair of slender-nosed ViseGrips to hold the rubber and remove the bolts. Once the bolt is out, the rubber nuts can be pried out of place.

I've just put a new front light harness in my 67 RS/SS Camaro. I used the Conversion that you are talking about, I didn't want to cut the new harness so I used this setup to change over to the internal alt. It seems to be working fine, But I have just started the car up in the garage & haven't tried it out on the road yet. smile.gif

The connections just came this morning. Simple plug ins. Cost with shipping was just under $20.00. The connector at the voltage regulator is a soft rubber which is good cause my fear was that it might move around a bit. :confused: I started the car and rather than a complete wire meltdown the only thing I got is a voltage gage that is solid at just below 14.5 volts. When I turn on the A/C at idle it drops to just above 14.0 and stays right there. :D It used to drop to about 12.0 and then start downward until I would turn the A/C off due to getting nervous around 10.0 volts. :eek: It looks like the most difficult part is getting the old external regular out. graemlins/clonk.gif I did have some problems with the MAD Electrical cross reference that I dug up on their website as I was going with the 78 amp 12 SI with 9:00 plug. The Auto Zone computer would only pull up the 94 amp models when I gave them the car/engine model. I went with the lower amps as I'm not running a bunch of accessories and I didn't want to take the time to properly upgrade the output and the battery charging wires. The fix for the cross reference was the guy just started opening the boxes. The result was Auto Zone Duralast DL7273-9. Cost was $59.99 and comes with the life-time warranty. The alternator bolts right in as it's the same size and the connections plug in without any wire cutting. Based on the initial results this looks like it is definately the way to go! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Just one note. The 94 amp alternator would have worked just fine without doing any wire upgrades. 94 amps is the rated capacity of the alternator. It will put out the 94 amps only when it has to. It doesn't dump out 94 amps all the time. So, if you don't add extra items on the car, it only puts out what you need.
It does sound like you did a great job.