Tesla vs. Edison
I have two quickies:
- Why don’t you like A-I-O distributors?
- 1-wire alternators sound wonky. Surely
the factory didn’t put in V’Reg, wiring etc.
for nothing. Are 1-wire alts suitable for
the street?
My old ’69 RR, RM23H9G122436 is long
departed, and is junked or still a racecar.
I have a haunted (how else to explain its
quirks?) 2010 300S, for now.
The primary reason I am prejudiced
against all-in-one dizzys is their oddball
ECU. Breakdown far from home — you’d
better have fresh Nikes in the trunk!
One-wire alternators are not able to
accurately sense battery, or even environmental,
temperature, so they cannot
accurately modulate voltage vs. temp.
This is something that even the ’60s electromechanical
regulators were able to
do (although the ’70-up electronic units
were a bit better at this task).

For drag racing, a constant, high voltage
regulator is the ticket, such as
the MP units. On the street, road racing,
etc., however, these will cook your battery
in short order. As far as the integral
regulator, who knows what the output will
be? Not me!

are temperature compensated, the common
“flatpack” designs were especially
good in this regard. Trivia: See the extra
hole in the center of the cutaway? To
eliminate all vestiges of moving parts (i.e.,
an adjustment rheostat), the resistor over
the hole was sandblasted (!) at the Huntsville
factory to adjust the voltage, then the
whole deal was potted with epoxy resin.