charging system
 

well my problem is that i am on my 4th alternator and my 4th battery. i can not figure this out. i know that the belt is tight enough and i had also ran a 12ga from the pos(+) on the battery to the b+ post on the alternator and it only worked for like 4 days. so i have started to look more into the engine bay wiring and noticed that some wires have like old oil on them but i didn't know if it would affect anything. also i ran a new engine ground but that doesn't seem to help.


also i noticed that there was like a orange/white with a connector that was severed that was just black so i figured it was just a ground so when i grounded it, it made my stock oil pressure gauge go all of the way up(i have a mechanical installed). i am completely lost and don't know what to do.

12ga?? get some 8 or 4...

run a ground from engine to body. and neg battery to body. and pos alt to pos bat.

check your running voltage with a voltmeter and make sure it's around 14v

i have both of those but i will run the neg battery terminal to the body ground. also i have these fuses that light up for the test light.

illum
antenna
room
hazard
stop

all of those were with the car off and the door closed and also none of the other ones came on.

where was this connector??

not sure about antenna but all those other fuses should have power with the car off so they are fine...


unless your battery is draining with the car off like overnight don't worry about what is on....


step one. start the car and take a volt meter across the battery and see if it's at 14v.

all i can tell you is that it connects to the harness with the b+ terminal ring on it and it is closer to the starter but not all the close to it. also if i remeber right i think that it kind of had a block shape box on it with an o ring.

checked the car this mourning when i started it up and the battery with the car on was running about 12.67v. so i don't know if it is the alternator. wouldn't think so just cause i just put that one in like 4 days ago.

i was at the other forum and asked the same question and they said that it could be the starter drawing to many amps from the battery and that it could be damaging the battery inturn damageing the alt hence f#$@%ing my charging system. any thoughts.

bump

bump....please help

With the engine running, the volt meter should read around 13.6 volts.

Never use test lights on a car.

Invest in a twenty buck digital meter from RadioShack.

Is the small, two wire connector, connected up to the back of the alternator?

Do you idiot lights come on when the key is to ON??? Not START, but to ON??? And do they go out when the engine is started??

i used a digital meter to check the volts with the car on.


i have the plug in the back of the alternator connected also.


the idiot lights quit working on monday.
they also go off when the car is off.

any clues?

anyone know

Yes. Pull the connector off the alternator. See if the Black wire with the white stripe has 12v on it.

Check the other wire which is a white wire with a black stripe (poor dumb ass who color coded those should lose his job, wife, girlfriend (boy friend in his case} and his dick should rot off), and see if it has 12v on it. Probably does, back feeding thru the relay. Never mind that one so much.

The Black/White wire is fed by the 15amp fuse in the crew compartment. Third row from the bottom, second fuse from the left.

So the idiot lights NEVER work, right? Since Monday.

the only one that comes on in the idiot lights is the e-break light and the seat belt. the rest don't work anymore since monday. hey hailers are you in the military at like an army base over there. j/w cause i am from abilene texas. nice to see some people from texas.lol

I had the same problem. All I did was replace the termnals and clean the main ground and it fixed my problem.

not to sound like a dumb ass but where is the main ground. and did you just replace the battery terminals?

The main ground goes from the battery to the block right near the starter. And yes I replaced the battery terminals.

I'd check the 15amp fuse..........then look for 12v on that small black/white wire when the key is to ON......and the small white/black wire for continuity from the alternator plug to the CPU plug. It's the only white/black wire on the CPU plug.

I really don't know just what the deal is. It seems to be a bad alternator. I've never done it myself.....but maybe rip it off and take it to a auto store. I hear that they will check them out for free. A good price indeed if true.

Actually be white/black wire plays little in the game of alternator. It just feeds a ground to the CPU to turn the idiot lights on.The relay in the CPU that feeds that relay is on the third row from the bottom. A 7.5 amp fuse. Third one from the left on that third row.

I'd be more interested in the BLACK/WHITE wire and if it has 12v on it when the key is to ON or the engine is runnning. I believe that is an excitation wire for the alternator. Yeah. That wire first.

Nope. Not in the military. Did my tour already. Have a good career. :)

i'm trying to see if it is drawing a current like icemark said on another forum but it isn't seeming to work. i am doing it the way that he said (take the neg terminal off and then put the prong(-) from the digital multimeter to the post and hook up the other on to the bat terminal doesn't seem to work. anyhelp would be appreciated

you never told us what the voltages were with the car running, meter leads on the battery post...also, I never heard of a starter drawing too much current and hurting the battery- considering for an instant every motor/ generator/ or OUR STARTERS act as a direct short to ground when activated- you can't exactly draw more current than that, can ya?

the volt while the car is on and idle are 12.50

i also checked like hailers told me and the top connector is 12.20 and the bottom is 11.70

current draining is a different problem... that is if your battery is 12v at night and 0v the next morning while the car was off so the car doesn't start. your's is a charging problem. with the car running.

but for the current..... you take off one battery wire. then put the meter between the wire and post you just took off. so everything is reconnected. but the current has to go through the metter. and it has to be set on amps. and probably has a different place to plug the probe in on the metter. don't put the keys into the car or use the car in any way while the meter is hooked up or you'll fry the meter.

well, if you're reading 12.5v with the car running, at least you know it's NOT the battery, lol...next, check the alternator output terminal on the top while running-if you're getting 14 or 15v there, it's the wiring between the alt and battery...if you're getting 12v still, either your alternator is shot or you're not getting the field excitation voltage input...I think that's what these guys are trying to tell you about the 12v on the little plug...although, excitation voltages are generally small (say, 1.5v) in most generators, due to the fact it's amplified during generation. but, ya never know, maybe our cars use 12v for excitation???

What's the voltage coming out of the alternator when the engine is rev'd to say 2000 rpm and above? Measured at the large wire on the alternator that feeds the battery????????

You don't have some aftermarket itty bitty small diameter pulley on that alternator, do you?