charging system problem

[79loserbluebu]

Make sure you are getting ignition voltage at the alternator for the voltage regulator. Seeing as you have a Cutlass with an SBC in it, something may of been forgotten and there may not be anything controlling voltage sent to recharge the battery. I had a problem similar to this when I swapped gauge clusters from a sweep style to a MCSS cluster.

 

[krazykyle]

all my stock indicating lights are not hooked up.i have a built sbc in it so those are useless........i have to make something clear......i made a mistake last week while swapping batteries from one car to my other car.....while putting the battery into my 83 cutlass(which is having problems now) i reversed the battery connections by mistake.positive on negative and negative on positive.it was late and dark and i **** up opps so i fried my electric fuel pump and alternator.replaced both and the car runs great,until yesterday.so what did i fry that I'm missing

 

[454muscle]

all my stock indicating lights are not hooked up.i have a built sbc in it so those are useless........i have to make something clear......i made a mistake last week while swapping batteries from one car to my other car.....while putting the battery into my 83 cutlass(which is having problems now) i reversed the battery connections by mistake.positive on negative and negative on positive.it was late and dark and i **** up opps so i fried my electric fuel pump and alternator.replaced both and the car runs great,until yesterday.so what did i fry that I'm missing

Oh sh*t. You know, I've done this before, twice lol.
1. Once it was pouring rain, I mean POURING and we were trying to flag people down to give us a boost. A guy with a volkswagon minivan stopped and their batteries have a big PLUS sign on both sides of the terminal. German engineering my *ss... you get the rest.
2. Was helping a friend boost his mustang and got major sparks then later realized the previous owner used black for positive and red for negative. IDIOT.

In either case, the lesson is, if you're boosting a battery in the dark, make DAMNED sure you're on the right terminal. Otherwise you're ****ed.

Because both of those cars above -- were completely ****ked and never really had a life after those incidents. Just saying. The electrical problems never ended. Hope yours is not as bad.

 

[pontiacgp]

all my stock indicating lights are not hooked up.i have a built sbc in it so those are useless........i have to make something clear......i made a mistake last week while swapping batteries from one car to my other car.....while putting the battery into my 83 cutlass(which is having problems now) i reversed the battery connections by mistake.positive on negative and negative on positive.it was late and dark and i **** up opps so i fried my electric fuel pump and alternator.replaced both and the car runs great,until yesterday.so what did i fry that I'm missing

do you have gauges?....if you do make sure the red light in the volt gauge lites up when starting ...if that bulb is burnt your charging system won't work. The power to energize the alternator travels through that lite

 

[krazykyle]

just what ever came stock on a 83 olds cutlass.so if the light bulb is burned out the charging system doesn't work?

 

[pontiacgp]

the alternator doesn't work if it isn't energized

 

[krazykyle]

seem strange that a light bulb can complete a circuit

 

[tc1959]

i put my meter on the battery and it said 11.8 and was not going up.

Do you have an alternator light, and or a volt gauge and is it working ? It sounds to me like the field isn't energizing.

That's right it won't start charging until it sees the small load from that bulb.That's what energizes the system.

 

[pontiacgp]

seem strange that a light bulb can complete a circuit

it's the way gm warned about a failure..a dim lite constantly on is an indication a phase is defective, a bright lite constantly on means the system is defective and no lite at all means the system isn't energized...

 

[Bonnewagon]

That's why it's a good idea to get an owner's manual and read it. All kinds of little tidbits we take for granted are explained.