long story short my roomate hooked some jumper cables up backwards, neg on positive and so on. now it will not run unless the jumper cables are hooked up or i have a charged batt... so obviously my alternator is not charging. there is power at the + post on the alternator but nothing on the "signal" wires. Ive looked this car over and over for a alternator fuse but failed to find anything that would even suggest it. Any input is appreciated. Hopefully i dont have to search for a burt wire. its a 1886 Gxl btw. mt pretty stock. thanks

 

sounds to me like a conection problem. just follow ur alt power wire and aee if its in tack and not corroded anywhere. other than that alt can cost as low as 35$ on ebay if u really cant figure it out.

 

If the jumper cables were connected backwards, there could be electrical damage throughout the car. It is likely the voltage regulator in the alternator is fried.

 

dont think there is any electrical damage anywhere else because with the jumpers hooked up(correctly) everythink seems to be in working oreder. soon as there unhooked it falls on its face, via nothin powering any of the electrical system. It wouldnt happen to have an external regulator would it? im not getting power to the small 2 wire connector that plugs into the back of the alternator but i do have 12 volts to the heavy cable that goes to the + side of the batt. (sorry for the dely between replys, dont have acces to a computer everyday)

 

If you're not getting power to the wire the runs to the L terminal, then you have a problem. With the ignition 'ON', that wire should have battery voltage. It's a switched power source. The alternator won't charge properly if that wire is not powered.

Go to the electrical section of the S4 FSM and perform the tests listed: http://www.rotaryheads.com/PDF/2nd_g...cal_system.pdf. Page 5-6 is where the alternator section begins, and the very first thing it says is "Be sure the battery connections are not reversed, because this will damage the rectifier." The voltage regulator is internal, so replacing it means replacing the whole thing.

 

Thanx RotaryRocket88. greatly appreciated.