K, I'm not sure what the real deal is here. I bought a 3rd gen alt brand new. I guess this happend after i relocated my battery. Anyways in the morning my volts hit up to 15.5. When im driving around its 14.5 which is fine. Lastly when i idle warm it goes down to 13 volts. The wire from my alt which goes through my fuse block, in the engine bay, which is straped in with my 1guage battery wire. Is the 1guage too long? Is this possibly why at idle it hits 13 when its not under any load?

Any Thoughts?

 

13v is completely acceptable. Voltages will be higher when cold so seeing spikes up to 16v is normal. You can check your wiring to maek sure but an easy check for alternator output is to get a multimeter (if you don;t have one I can bring one to Izzy's). Set the voltmeter to voltage, connect the ground lead to negative battery post, and connect positive lead to alternator output (the wire with the eyelet connector that is screwed onto the back of the alternator).

 

Idle makes sense. Lower rpm, alternator spinning slower, lower volts. Check with a multimeter at idle/revving also if you can (at battery) to see what the volts read. Sometimes the stock gauge is a little off.

 

it might be a bit higher when cold because you replaced the 20 yr old corroded wiring with new wiring with less internal resistance, are you sure the plug in the back of the alternator is wired up correctly??? its referance for the internal voltage regulator??

thats not a really high number to worry... but make sure you didnt mess somethng up cause its weird for it to change all a sudden like that

 

Well I'm reading the volts off my safc, not sure if thats the problem. I just used two little plugs, forgot the actual name for it, for the alternator. I have the harness, but didnt want to use that since the wiring left on it was thicker than what i had.

 

ohh yeah forgot t2 doesnt have a volt meter, ohh its prolly fine then i wouldnt worry