:
: Voltage regulators, both the old style
: (single-field system, originally found on
: '60-'69 cars) and the newer style
: (dual-field system, originally found on '70
: and newer cars) rely on a good,
: low-resistance ground path to accurately
: sense and regulate the voltage output of the
: alternator.
:
: The regulator grounds through the regulator's
: housing base to the firewall sheetmetal.
: This is a poor ground path even if the
: regulator base is shiny and bright and
: there's no rust in the car's sheetmetal. At
: T-plus-thirty-or-forty years...neither is
: likely to be so! Also, many of the newer
: regulators, including both types of MP
: "Constant Output" blue-box
: regulators and the MP
: "Restoration"
: black-with-yellow-print regulator, as well
: as others, are dip-coated in plastic, which
: makes it awfully hard to get a good ground
: path.
:
: The ammeter in my '62 Lancer (converted to
: later dual-field charging system) was doing
: the flicker-dance, especially when any sort
: of electrical load was applied.
:
: So, during this afternoon's car-prep-to-go-East
: session, I put an ohmmeter
: across one of the regulator mounting bolts and
: the battery negative post: 15 ohms.
:
: Like, ohm my gawd!
:
: It took about 10 minutes of scraping with a
: single-edged razor blade, but I finally got
: down to bare metal. Looped a 16ga wire around
: one of the mounting bolts,
: reinstalled the regulator, looped the other end
: of the wire around the battery negative
: cable's clamp bolt, put the ohmmeter across:
: 1.9 ohms.
:
: Started the car, put on the headlamps. There's
: still a *tiny* bit of flicker, but it's
: completely livable. I bet it would go away
: if I took my
: own (old!) advice and completed the ground
: return loop with a wire between the
: alternator housing and either the voltage
: regulator base or the battery negative
: terminal.

: I don't know why, but my 1979 Dodge truck has a
: heavy 12 or 10 gauge wire from the mounting
: bolt of the voltage regulator to the
: mounting bolt of the ignition ECU. It's a
: factory made wire, not someones home made
: wire. Any ideas?

Jopapa am using such a ground system, but went one step further and improved the positive side by elimating the bulkhead connector. Now all I have is a terminal at the alternator and starter. Dave

For an alternator output and that short a length it should be fine. If it were a constant 60a over a longer length I would have used 8 or 4.
Have you ever seen 1/0? 1" diameter

Yep, am using 1/0 welding cable for my alternator/starter feed and also in my dash harness no voltage loss here! Jopapa use the largest gauge you can work with and keep splices and connectors to a minuimim. Dave