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Old 04-20-2008, 06:19 AM
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rtstrack rtstrack is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Upstate, NY
Cobra Make, Engine: Lone Star 428
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I thought my alternator issues were resolved, but they aren't. Could anyone assist me in determining how my car should be properly wired? The parts I am dealing with are battery, solenoid, msd box, external voltage regulator, 1g alternator and a distributor/unilite ignition system, coil. The car starts fine, so it seems my starter/ ignition system is wired propery, but my alternator is not charging my battery. Upon further inspection of my wiring harness I think I found out why, the STA wire on my alternator was litterally going NO PLACE. Here is how my car appears to be wired. MSD box - one red wire going to + solenoid, two wires going to distributor/unilite ignition system, two wires going to coil. External voltage regulator - I, A & S wires go somewhere into my fuse box ( the box is on the inside shelf and I can't see exactly or get to it), the F goes to the F on the alternator. Alternator - BAT has big red wire going someplace into fuse box area, F goes to regulator, ground - three wires - one from unilite, one from regulator and the third grounds those 2 and alternator to frame, the STA goes nowhere. So this is what I have so far, any ideas? The wire that was hooked to the STA had a S taped onto it so I tried taking the other end and putting it into the S slot of the regulator and taking the S wire (that was there, and that comes from the fuse box) out (just left it hanging) but that didn't work either. No matter what combonation I try the dash gauge never goes beyone 12 volts and the battery never reads over 12.5 when idle or otherwise. The manager at napa said to try putting a wire from the + of the coil to the F on the alternator and see if that works..apparently he thought the ignition wasn't signaling to the alternator to "start" and this hard line would take care of that....it didn't. The voltage was reading 5volts at the BAT terminal on the alternator and 13/13.5 volts on the F of the alternator. From what I've read everything seems to be reading correctly. Oh...and I brought the altnernator back to NAPA to have it tested just to be safe..and its fine. Whats throwing me off is that the wire from the BAT and the wires from the S, A & I are all leading off to some type of junction box that I can't completely see or get too. At this point I think I'll try disconecting all of those and try the simple diagram wiring. Send the BAT straight to the battery and take the F & S and send them from the regulator to the alternator and send the A to the BAT field and leave the I alone. I'm open to ANY suggestions at this point. When I start her up the lights are off, the fans are off (seperate relay) and the stereo has its own set of cables for the battery (which i've been leaving off so that I don't over load the alternator at this point) so it seems as though I shouldn't be overloading the alternator. I'm open to ANY suggestions at this point.
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