83 Delta 88 Alternator Wont Charge

[Chris Tomas]

You can lead a horse to water........ 4 pages over 3 days to check if an alternator is charging. It takes under a minute to check 2 conditions. Is it exciting and if so is it sending 13.7+ to the battery

You took the neg lead off when running to check if charging ( bad idea, hard on the internal regulator )
You mention that the car is "hot wired", messing with this wiring may have something to do with your charging problem ( bad idea )
Your pic shows the 12v ground wire from the battery to the alternator bracket is off and dangling ( bad also )
Longroof has advised you "excite" the alternator by jumping 12v to the brown wire then check the output ( this takes less than 30 seconds and a 6" piece of wire)

You can see by the wiring ( 2 heavy red leads ) that Olds ties in the power from the alternator to the lug on the starter and back to the battery for charging ( chev runs a lead from the alt to the battery direct ). Longroof and others have suggested you bypass / add to this additional wire to your system and see if its now charging. ( another lest try this to see if it works 30 seconds fix ).

Try any of these excellent suggestions and report back. Or as mentioned above take it off and take it to just about any parts place to be tested for FREE.

I get you are on a budget but you have been given excellent information here and none of it is very expensive.

4 pages over 3 days due to me trying to cross every possible problem off the list. Lets also keep in mind sunday things close early, and a disabled person like myself requires more rest than the average person.

And 2 Conditions to test for yes, but more than one method for testing exists keep in mind. Please be patient, cause this is giving me a headache too(although in hindsight it shouldnt lol)

As i haven't gotten anything in the 13v range so far, and the 12v ground wire from the battery was never attached when i first bought the car, where would this ground wire on the alternator specifically be attached, if you dont me asking?

I will try jumping the brown wire after wiring the alternator directly to the battery first.

 

[Chris Tomas]

Or you could take your alternator to just about any auto parts store and have it bench tested for free before rewiring the car. Just throwing that option out there.

Really now? You know, i would, except for the fact i explained prior that the parts i was told were already tested.

I'll get it tested from another place just to be double sure, but please... Quit with the sarcasm.

 

[Chris Tomas]

View attachment 80072 View attachment 80073 View attachment 80074 I took a pic of my alternator for you im pointing at the wire I added

Thank you for the pictures. I will test your method and post back here, the next step if that doesn't work would be for me to do hit the brown wire with 12v.

 

[Jim hopper]

I hope it helps Chris

 

[Chris Tomas]

I apologize if this seems long and drawn out, it takes me several hours to bus across the city and back home with parts. I left home at 2pm today to canadian tire and just got back not even 30 minutes ago.

 

[Jim hopper]

Its all good

 

[fleming442]

Pro tip: junkyards don't test anything. They might say they did, they might replace said part, but I'm 95% it wasn't tested.

 

[Chris Tomas]

Pro tip: junkyards don't test anything. They might say they did, they might replace said part, but I'm 95% it wasn't tested.

Sounds good! I'm going to get it tested tommorow. I think shes defective, i wired the batt directly to the alt, and now the charge light goes REAL dim after running the motor and giving some gas.

 

[Chris Tomas]

Thanks everyone for helping me so far, i'm pretty sure the alternator is a dud.

In fact im not even sure if my original was even bad in the first place.

After doing what Jim Hopper suggested, the bypass didnt overcharge my battery thankfully *breathes with relief* but rather, it seems to be making the alt.....more responsive, because with the factory wiring and the 2nd alt thats in it now, the charge light still remained on even when the engine was going, and giving some gas didn't make the light go away..

But after wiring the alt directly to the battery positive post, the charge light gets very dim when i give the engine gas. Still only outputs 11.90v at idle. But the car seems a little less sluggish when starting now?

Might try ****ing with that little brown wire as suggested here, but something tells me this replacement alt is trash. Time to get the professionals to test it in the meantime!

 

[Chris Tomas]

While the alternator gets tested, although im sure it wont fix the issue, can anyone recommend how to check if the grounding is proper?