Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi I'm new to the forum's so hope this is ok to ask. I have fitted a Dynamator to my 1969 elan. The unit fits perfectly but I'm unsure about the wiring. Here is my before and after. Can anybody tell me if there's anything wrong here before I start her up.

I'm also changing from positive earth so have to swap the coil , ammeter , clock and convert the tacho.

here's my wiring

Original wiring at control box

Terminal A1 connecting 4 wires Brown/Blue (x2 spliced)
Brown/Yellow spliced to Black

Terminal A connecting 2 wires Brown to Green/ Brown

Terminal F connected to Brown/Green (Thinner wire)

Terminal D connected to 2 wires Brown/yellow (Spliced)

Terminal E connected to 2 wires Black (Spliced)

Original wiring at Generator

Generator output connected with Brown/Yellow to terminal D

Generator Field connected with Brown/Green to terminal F

New wiring

Dynamator output connected to solenoid + side direct to battery

Dynamator Field connected to Brown/Yellow spliced wire disconnected from terminal D

Output box terminal A Brown/Brown Green now disconnected from box & joined

Output box terminal A1 Brown/Blue & Brown/Yellow & Black left connected , plus new connection to solenoid + side direct to battery

Brown/Green from terminal F left disconnected

2 black wires left connected to Terminal E

Sorry, but what is a dynamator?

do you have a radio? +ve earth?

Hi a dynamator is a lightweight 45amp alternator built into a dynamo body so it fits older cars and retains the original look. The car does have a +earth radio but it does not work and I intend to remove it.

There is a company called Powerlite who do one of these. Here it is: http://www.powerlite-units.co.uk/dynalite.htm
(I just bought one of their starters and it seems very good so far)
They have good instructions about how to modify the wiring for theirs as a download. Is yours from this company? If not I guess the wiring will be the same so take a look.
Regards.
Keith.

Actually the diagram I meant is on here: http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/806/category/141
as this has our type of control box shown.
Edited to add or here: http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/893/category/141 for +ve earth.

I bought and fitted a positive earth Dynalite alternator.

lotus-electrical-f38/ignition-light-stays-what-next-t25813-15.html

(About 8th post down)

I also fitted a dummy regulator/control box.

New wiring all went ok - I left all the original redundant wiring taped up so that a dynamo could be reinstated if need be.

This is the "wiring diagram" which I have inserted into my workshop manual relating to my + earth dynalite alternator upgrade

Keith Scarfe wrote:Actually the diagram I meant is on here: http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/806/category/141
as this has our type of control box shown.
Edited to add or here: http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/893/category/141 for +ve earth.

I couldn't find the actual wiring diagram on that link (ssems a link is missing on that page) but I edited the URL to 'neg' and this came up:
http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/f ... ol_box.jpg

Thanks all for the replies. The diagram posted by bill sems to make most sence to me. My regulator has aditional wiring on terminals A & A1 compared to the manual.
EG A has both brown/green and brown
A1 has blue/brown and brown/yellow and a black

I guess I can leave these as they are ? could these be to do with extra equipment like window motors and spot light ?

Silly question but what do these terminal do (A & A1)

Steve

Keith found the diagram, I just found the way to display it.

Concrete-crusher wrote:Thanks all for the replies. The diagram posted by bill sems to make most sence to me. My regulator has aditional wiring on terminals A & A1 compared to the manual.
EG A has both brown/green and brown
A1 has blue/brown and brown/yellow and a black

I guess I can leave these as they are ? could these be to do with extra equipment like window motors and spot light ?

Silly question but what do these terminal do (A & A1)

Steve

This document that I found does a great description of how a dynamo controller works.
http://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/controlbox.htm
but unfortunately for your question it does not say which terminals on that circuit correspond to A and A1.

billwill wrote:

Concrete-crusher wrote:Thanks all for the replies. The diagram posted by bill sems to make most sence to me. My regulator has aditional wiring on terminals A & A1 compared to the manual.
EG A has both brown/green and brown
A1 has blue/brown and brown/yellow and a black

I guess I can leave these as they are ? could these be to do with extra equipment like window motors and spot light ?

Silly question but what do these terminal do (A & A1)

Steve

This document that I found does a great description of how a dynamo controller works.
http://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/controlbox.htm
but unfortunately for your question it does not say which terminals on that circuit correspond to A and A1.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The full info on Lucas dynamo controllers is at:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 4Pva070y-A

And if you plough though that you find that terminal A is the connection to the car battery and terminal A1 is used for high power loads such as headlights. It passes that high current around a small number of turns of thick wire to affect the current regulation of a dynamo. After you have converted to an alternator that will have no real effect and just acts as a thick piece of wire inside the controller connecting A to A1.

Just to clarify, the product the OP is using is a 'dynalite'?

As far as I am aware 'dynamotor' refers to either a rotary converter which turns dc into ac using a single rotor with two commutators, or to a product produced by Lucas in the 30s which combined a dynamo and starter motor into one unit.

Thanks once again for the advice it's been really useful and given me the confidence to start up the system with my wiring.

I do have another question which maybe should be a separate post but here goes.

I,m also converting from positive to negative earth. Most instructions talk about tachometer conversion , coil reversal , amp meter reversal and clock replacement
But what about the battery meter and fuel meter are they affected by polarity ?

Steve