Topic: Alternator question

[68 S Code]

Had the alternator stamped by Jack at Dead Nuts On and it looks great. Detailed the wiring harness and went to install it. Looked at the shop manual and my dog bone rubber connector doesn't match. I only have two mounting points and not 3 like in the manual. The STA post on the alt will be less a connection. Do I have the wrong harness? Or is the STA post for a tach car? Help!

[midlife]

Don't know for sure for 1968 (that's one year where the wiring documentation is less than adequate), but in other years, the STA post is only used for idiot lights for alternator monitoring---in other words, a tach version.

[C5ZZKGT]

Certainly no expert here but when I took a couple of original alternators to my rebuilder he found that 1 was assembled for a 6 cylinder application - that makes the back half of the case not line up with the V8 wireing harness...

[68 S Code]

Went on eBay and saw the triple dog bone on a 69 harness and it was listed as being for a tach equipped car. Shop manual only shows one illustration for my alt and another for CJ connectors.

[J_Speegle]

Went on eBay and saw the triple dog bone on a 69 harness and it was listed as being for a tach equipped car. Shop manual only shows one illustration for my alt and another for CJ connectors.

Getting off thread but there are four different 69 alternator wire looms so be careful

[68 S Code]

Jeff I only looked at the 69's because there were more for sale than 68's. I'm just trying to determine whether I am only supposed to have the one with 2 connection points. Looks like the triple connector as shown in shop manual is for a tach car. The one I have is original to the car. Very short because it's for a BB. Still has the SX wrapper on it with a C8Z #.

[TLea]

For 68 there are 2 different ones. One with tach, one without

[68 S Code]

The one for tach has three ears on the rubber connector (dog bone) and the non tach has two ears? With the non tach harness the terminal marked STA on the rear off the alternator would have no connection?

[TLea]

That sounds correct but honestly its been so long since I've worked on as non tach car I don't remember for sure.

[68 S Code]

Tim after doing some comparisons I think your statement of there being two different ones should be changed to say there are 2 different types. It seems there are the rubber dog bone and the terminal plug types ( the later being primarily used on big block cars for a portion of the model year). Late in the model year all engine types were using the rubber dog bone. Each of the two types came in a tach or non tach application. To further make it difficult each engine family meaning  6 cylinder, small block and big block had a specific length harness (6 cyl being the longest and FE's being the shortest). I did a comparison on original 68 dog bone harnesses and found this length of harness difference. My FE harness barely is long enough to reach the mounting points between the alt and the ground point to the block. A small block harness has longer leads. Lots of combinations. I spoke with Jack at dead nuts on and in 69 it got standardized to 2 harnesses, tach and non tach with one size fits all.

[TLea]

The dog bone connector was used on tach cars all the way back to Dec (BB and SB). There is also the loose wire version for tach and non tach car. My point of the statement 2 different types was referring to the mounting connection, tach and non tach, and not the style of connector

[68 S Code]

I was under the impression that the dog bone on BB didn't start until april or may. Thanks for correcting me on that.

[TLea]

I have a Dec small block (tach) and have the original dog bone

[68 S Code]

I dont remember seeing the individual leads with the boots on any 68 small block. Shop manual shows dog bone connector at its printing so I would have to say all 6's and SB came with them. My BB GT's (san Jose and Dearborn both built later in the model year) both had dog bones. The shop manual shows the individual leads on 65 amp alternators but some BB parts suppliers say that all BB had the boots until late. If you look thats the repop alt harness which is available for BB. No one lists a BB dog bone for 68 in their catalogs that i know of.

[TLea]

I have 3 original dogbone from BB tach cars, build dates are 1/26, 2/22, 5/24