Ground wire on the side of alternator.

[TheMoneyPit-95ATX]

What is this a ground wire to? I see it joins into the main group of wires. My battery light was on in my car so I was checking connections on the alternator and this wire was pretty badly damaged and then it broke. Now, the damndest thing...the battery light is no longer on...What the f_ck? Can someone give me some insight on this...

 

[sdpatt]

The alternator is grounded through its mounting to the engine. The single wire, landed to the terminal on the driver's side of the alternator with a 10mm nut, is the 12 volt power supply to the alternator. Without it, the field coils are not energized to create a magnetic field and the alternator will be unable to generate current. That wire should be hot with 12 volts. If not, the in-line fuseable link under the air cleaner box may be blown.

 

[SHOfun 93]

Be careful with that wire! If it is hot, you can pop your finger pretty good. I did that on my 92 while trying to figure out a battery light condition and the car dying. Symptoms look like a bad alternator, but after removing it and having it tested, I quickly realized that if that nut gets damaged or moved inside the alternator case, there won't be consistent current flowing like Scott said above.

 

[TheMoneyPit-95ATX]

Thanks a lot fellas. That makes total sense to me now. Like I said before, the wire has now broke about 2 inches below the connection to the alternator. Am I going to be able to splice in a piece of wire to this to correct the problem or am I gonna have to replace the whole wire? It looks like replacing the wire would be a large pain in my *** .

<small>[ December 28, 2003, 10:21 AM: Message edited by: TheMoneyPit-95ATX ]</small>

 

[SHOZ123]

That wire is the hot output of the alternator. It contains an 18 ga fuse link and then continues to splice. Here it goes to the starter solenoid and also branches through two other fuse links to the hot post on the underhood fuse box.

 

[sdpatt]

No, that wire is the 12 volt input from the battery to the alternator and you had better remove the negative terminal from the battery before handling it.