Alternator terminal clocking?

[IDTag]

Bought my 1965 a while ago and am just getting time to start putting it back together. The engine was out and pretty much all the accessories were missing.

Went online to buy an alternator and there are notes to make sure the terminal clocking matches. What determines the clocking of the terminals? I bought a parts car but of course the alternator is gone.

[Alan H. Tast]

There were two alternator mounting positions for '65-66, depending on how the car was optioned. One mounting location was 'high' and used with non-A/C-equipped cars; the other was 'low' and used when A/C was installed. 'Clocking' of the alternator for mounting on the engine would depend if high- or low-mounted. Note the location of the rounded lug where the adjustment bracket bolt is located.

High-mount was used without A/C -rounded 'lug' is at the top. Note the location of terminals on the back of the alternator are outboard from the center-line of the car:

1965-1966 Engine-Accessories (from 1965 Electrical Assembly Manual)

High-mount alternator (from 1965 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

High-mount alternator-connections (from 1965 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

Low-mount was used with A/C and on '66s with the Thermactor air pump - rounded 'lug' is at the bottom. Note that the terminals on the back of the alternator are inboard vs outboard on the high-mount drawings:

Low-mount alternator-front view (from 1965 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

Low-mount alternator-rear view (from 1965 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

The '65 T-bird Shop Manual didn't include information on high- versus low-mounted alternators. It did provide an illustration of the rear of the alternator and the cast-in terminal identifications: the view corresponds with the high-mount alternator graphic.

1965-1966 Alternator rear and terminals (from 1965 T-bird Shop Manual)

65 SM p13-10 Fig 7 alt terminals.gif (20.9 KiB) Viewed 92 times

As for whether you can 'clock' the rear housing and terminals of the alternator itself, i.e. rotate the position of the rear housing to place the terminals outboard and away from the engine block and timing chain cover, there's no instructions in the Shop Manual on how to do this, primarily because it wasn't needed as shown in the electrical assembly manual illustrations.

Given that you've bought a car that's been disassembled and needs to be put back together, you should get copies of all the manuals you can for your '65 including the Shop Manual, Electrical Assembly Manual, Body-Trim-Sealer Manual, etc. The shop manual can be found in print and digital versions (CD-ROM) and purchased through the T-bird parts houses that help support VTCI and this Forum, as well as the assembly manuals.

[IDTag]

Great information! I did get a copy of the manual, also bought another parts car with the AC intact. Haven't had any time to work on it for the past month or so. Did get the engine dropped back in but that's about it.