electric gremlins and questions

[oldpm]

Hi All:
Drove my 54 Manhattan about sixty miles yesterday.  Put it in the garage, turned off the ignition and noticed that the amp light remained lit.  Turned themignition switch to on and the oil lamp came on and the amp light went off.  had to disconnect the battery to get it to go off.  No electrical issue for the past four years.  Any ideas?
Also, just bought a 6 volt positive ground alternator-no instructions included-anyone know to connect  it?  Also what to disconnect of the generator system, voltage regulator etc.
Thanks
Barry

[Henry's HenryJs]

Some info on the alt would be helpful(GM type?). A link to the manufacture as well as pic's. How many wire connections on it? I hope it is not a one wire alt.

[Fid]

The amp light staying on after the ingition switch is off could be caused by stuck contacts in the voltage regulator. Remove the cover from the regulator, turn the switch off and operate the contacts in the regulator by hand (either close or open them depending on which position they are in to begin with) and see if the light goes out. It may be a matter of just cleaning the voltage regulator contacts.

[HJ-ETEX]

Back in the days... Well when you bought an old car, it often had the voltage regulator cover removed. One reasons why this was is people were fiddling with the regulator to try to compensate for a dying a battery or a generator that needed rebuilding. But a lot of the times, the relay for the light was sticking and tapping on the cover didn't fix the problem. If the amp light is on when the ignition switch is off, your battery is slowing discharging much like leaving the dome light on.