I posted the below ? in wiring forum as well....

Good progress made on wire harness...main pwr. lead to fuse box will hook to the "B" terminal on the regulator...can someone tell me what job the "alternator exciter wire" does ? I dont seem to have a home for it (I have a 12v gen. and external regulator).
Is it possible that this is the trigger for the starter, I have one wire label to starter that goes to the battery side of starter selinoid but need a return from start switch to the other side of selinoid.
All other systems wired and accounted for ...I think!
thanks,Ed

 

put it to a hot side of the switch when the key is in the run position,it will not charge if it don't get 12 volt's to it in the run position.

 

The primer/exciter wire supplies the voltage during start up until the alternator supplies its own exciter to equalize voltages. Once it equalizes it turns out the alt light. If the light doesn't go out the diode in the equalize circuit may be defective.Have a great day,chuck

 

If you don't have an alternator, don't use it!! Hook up your generator just the way it was.

 

I traced the alt. exciter back and it looks like it is on a fuse with the radio acc. and the electric wiper leads on the other side of the fuse...? I'm not going to use it and I'll test the power to the other leads before I remove it from the fuse block as unneeded...or better yet, I'll just terminate it in case I go to an alt. setup in the future.
thanks for the input, Ed

 

In engineering terms: when a coil of wire is passed through a magnetic field current is induced in the wire. In a generator the magnetic field is produced by permanent magnets; however in an alternator the field is created in coils of wire wrapped around an iron core. The armatures are similar in both setups. As the other Chuck said in an earlier post, the exciter lead must be hot to create the magnetic field otherwise it's just an armature spinning in air.