This might be a dumb question, but my truck came with no battery.  How do you know if it's been converted?   It has an aftemarket tach that says negative earth.(pointed out by mklotz70, thank you).  I'm not sure it ever worked.  Also, the wiring under the hood looks like it got pretty warm at one time.  Could that happen from being connected backward?  The voltage reg & gen are Lucas units and I'm trying to combine the 320 & Lucas wiring schemes, but don't want to make thing worse!  Help? Anyone?

Lots of thanks!

Steve:D

We are currently working on our L320 that has some electrical questions.  We are going to solve few this weekend.  I will have my friend who is more skilled at electrical reply to this to help you out.  Our truck is all original with generator vice altenator.  The truck is negative ground, the other night we we got it started for the first time, we realized that we had the wiring backwards on the generator when smoke started coming out of it and the voltage regulator.  We switched the wires and the smoking stopped, it just does not charge.  Hopefully we can help you.

Thanks for the reply!  Any help would be great.  I hope by this evening I'll have a handle on the wiring setup.   Another question.  Does the neg side of the coil go to the dist if it's pos ground? 

 

Thanks again!

 

Steve

    A little of electrical theory here.  Generators sometimes use a residual magnetisim in the field to start generating voltage.  The regulator keeps the generator isolated from the rest of the electrical system, until it is creating a voltage above that of the battery.  If a generator sits for a long time, it can lose its residual magnetisn it needs to start generating a voltage, or worse, sometimes the magnetic polarity can switch, and the generator will become negitive ground on a positive ground system, and short the battery when the generator creates enough voltage to trip the voltage regulator.
    The generator must be polarized if the charging system is worked on.
    I am sorry, I do not remember the procedure for polarizing a generator on a Datsun, All my Datsuns have alternators.

Well folks,

We got the little beast to come to life last night!!!  It actually runs really well, considering it has not run in 13 years.  The carb will need an overhaul.  I have decided not to take any chances and re-wire the entire truck & install an alternator.  By the way, the system seems to be negative ground.  There's a ground wire between the trans & the frame.  Is that factory?  Anyhow, I appreciate all the info from everyone!!!

 

P.S.  There was a 63 L320 for sale at the Pomona (CA) swapmeet this weekend.  Not too bad of shape & it ran.  I think he was asking 3,000?, but if anyone is interested,  I still have his #.

 

Thanks again,

Steve