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Hi folks,
I'm having some problems getting my alternator to charge. The idiot light started coming on intermittently, and would go out when I revved the engine up, until a few days later when it came on and stayed on.
So I pulled the alternator and brought it in to have it tested. It tested out just fine, so I suspected the field wire. When I examined the wire, I noticed that the outer casing soft and crumbly, like moist clay. I guess whatever formulation was used on these wires, it wasn't meant to last, because I've seen this same deterioration on my APC solenoid wires.
Anyway, I wanted to try running a new field wire, but it goes into a wiring harness of some kind, and I couldn't follow it, so I'm wondering if anyone knows where it goes to.
I had heard that the field wire is supplied power through the idiot light, so I traced down what I assume to be the idiot light's wire (pin 3 on the black side-mount connector on the instrument panel), and ran a new field wire directly to the alternator hoping that it was just a bad field wire grounding out somewhere.
Doing this didn't help anything.. when the field wire is disconnected the idiot light goes out, and when I connect the field wire the light comes on and stays on, which is how it has been when the whole trouble started, so I'm no further ahead.
The alternator is definitely not charging, and voltage just drops and drops as the battery is drained, so I really need some advice on where to go next. Did I get the wrong wire from the idiot light, perhaps? Pin 3 goes to one side of the light, but I'm not sure if it is the correct side. :-\
I did look for other posts relating to the field wire, and one of them mentioned something similar about the light being out when the field wire is cut/disconnected. Could it be a problem with something else like the voltage regulator on the alternator? I would have thought that it wouldn't have tested good at the alternator shop if the regulator was shot. (???)
Any help would be really great. Thanks for reading this, if you took the time. I'm sorry it's kinda long-winded.
-- Eric
'86 Saab 9000 Turbo
posted by 209.252....
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