83 Delta 88 Alternator Wont Charge

[Jim hopper]

Good luck I hope u get her fixed

 

[Chris Tomas]

I also have a 4ga. wire connecting from the battery positive to the lug on back of the alternator. Does your car have a charge light on the dash? If that bulb is out, the alternator will not receive the necessary signal to excite the alternator to begin charging.
Your brown excite wire could be open. Try running a temporary lead from that terminal to a switched +12 volt source on your fuse panel.
I've seen people go round and round replacing alternators, etc. and it turned out to be a bad wire or charge light bulb.

Hi! Thanks for the reply, yes the charge light works. Pretty much, with the original alternator, and 1st alt swap the charge light would go out when she was fired up, but now with the 2nd alt swap the charge lights stays on even with the motor running, dimming and lighting up non stop, while the other choke/brake lights remain normally lit as they always did.

I don't think the brown wire is the issue, as the harness and fusebox is in pretty good shape, but ill check it out too tommorow.

Before i do though, you mentioned about a 4 AWG wire running straight from the positive side of the battery to the back of the alt.. If i do this, does the connection need to be fused for testing? Otherwise i gotta order what i think is called a fusible link and in canada they are difficult to find it seems. I'm just worried if the alt is defective and i do this it could overcharge the batt and start a fire.

 

[Chris Tomas]

Good luck I hope u get her fixed

Thanks Jim! If you ever get the chance to send a photo of your setup sometime, please post haha. Take care.

 

[Longroof79]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no battery lead coming off of the alternator. It would generally go to the starter or directly to the battery.
Could that be the reason why your battery isn't charging?

 

[Chris Tomas]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no battery lead coming off of the alternator. It would generally go to the starter or directly to the battery.
Could that be the reason why your battery isn't charging?

It goes to the battery through the factory wiring harness, but passes through a fusable link first before reaching the battery, so i'm just wondering if the wiring or the fusable has a problem, wouldn't it makes sense to directly run my own red wire from the back of the alternator, to the positive post of the battery, hence bypassing the factory wiring harness, to see if suddenly will kick up to 14v?

I read somewhere running a wire from #2 on the connector directly to the battery might help as well, but im scared of running wire to any part of the alternator to the battery directly without some type of fuse, as i've read overcharging can happen....

 

[DRIVEN]

Have you had the alternator bench tested?

 

[Chris Tomas]

Have you had the alternator bench tested?

Not me no. But the junkyard who sold me both alternators said they were tested, but i was told they had been sitting there in the parts bin for awhile.. Perhaps something could have been damaged...

 

[Chris Tomas]

Have you had the alternator bench tested?

I'm inclined to think the 2nd alternator may be bad, simply because the original and 1st swap had the charge light in the dash go out when the motor was running, but with this one installed the light stays illuminated even when engine is on.

 

[olds307 and 403]

I am also running a 4 gauge wire, just bought the closest length battery cable from Canadian Tire with double female ends for my 88 Cutlass. The wiring is garbage on this car and I don't trust it.

 

[Chris Tomas]

I am also running a 4 gauge wire, just bought the closest length battery cable from Canadian Tire with double female ends for my 88 Cutlass. The wiring is garbage on this car and I don't trust it.

Fair enough, cause yea i suspect a wiring issue, even the side posts for the battery cables are somewhat rusty and VERY stubborn to turn with pliers.

Guess its off to canadian tire to grab a top post clamp and some 4AWG wire!