1986 cutlass charging issues

[slayback0927]

Going to start with a little back story on the car . this was my grandmother's car purchased new , it has 82,614 miles , 307 auto column shift car with manual windows and locks.

Only things done to this car have been normal maintance . until about two weeks ago it died on the way home , figured twenty nine year old alternator and five year old battery , this was just a simple fix . wrong . I have replaced the alternator twice and battery twice along with negative battery cable , v belt , two wire lead off Alt. At idle it makes 12.4 and drops rapidly if I turn on anything . when driving down the road with everything off the car slowly loses power and dies .

I have checked voltage with key on\engine off and the brown wire to field has 12 volts. And back of alt. Has 12 volts the only way I have found to make the alt. Kick on is to undo the negative battery cable then it jumps up to over 14 . even at 2000 rpms with everything hooked up I get no change in voltage .

This is my first gbody and means a lot to me any help would be awesome . don't be to hard on me for being a gbody newbie my normal hobby cars have been E30 BMW's

 

[Olds>Everyone]

I also have a charge problem, though I suspect it may be do to poor connections.

 

[truracer20]

Grounds are important, and are usually the cause of electrical issues. Be sure you have a good battery to block ground, block to frame ground, block to body ground and battery to body ground. The original braided copper block to firewall ground works fine with good clean connections. The original 10ga. battery to body ground works fine as well as long as the connections are clean and secure. Next is the block to frame ground. You likely won't have one but can add one. I prefer to use battery cable.
A body to frame ground is also a worth while addition, and can be done at the firewall and really only needs to be 10ga. wire.

Soldered connections are best for all connections but crimped connections with heat shrink sleeves can be ok if done right.

I have seen these cars not charge if the battery to body ground wasn't connected, The reason is a lack of bonded grounding.

Does your BATT/ALT/CHARGE light come on when you first turn the ignition to run?
Does the light stay on all the time with the engine running?

Also check all wiring in the circuit for cracked and missing insulation, paying particular attention to the red 10ga wire.

Does the red charge wire have 12v with key on, engine off?

 

[slayback0927]

Issue was block to body ground and proper alt. Charging as it should now .