I was wondering what would be involved in an alterator switch from one with the tree wires to 2 wires? The boat came with the multi-wire design which I believe is a marine alternator. I have an alternator which came from a complete motor which uses the heavy positive and then just one small gound attached to the shell of the alternator. It was actually may be a one-wire alt. that some placed a ground wire to. The alternator that came on the engine is in much better shape. The one from the boat was not charging great and is now now very rusty.

Just hook up the hot and the ground to the one wire alternator. You will need to tape off the other two wires. They are used to excite the alternator. The one wire alt. is self exciting. You must tape those wires up good because they have power going through them and you do not want them touching any grounds. Hope this helps, Eddie.

Thanks, I have in it and hooked it up. I will tape-up my wires today. Do those exciter wires have anything to do with voltermeter function? My background is in automotive repair and I remember the one-wire designs needing to re-wire the voltmeter on some cars. I also rember that an ameter does not work with one-wire designs. Anyway the only vehicle my dad and I had with the ameter was a '76 vette. There was some voltmeter issue in this boat last season because my meter across the battery terminals most of the time read higher than the dash by one to one 1/2 volts.

just be aware the two wire alternators wont start charging until the rpms reach about 1200.