I got frustrated re-wiring the alternator to battery cable every year, so at inspection time I asked my mechanic to do it, permanantly. He says my alt is bad, not charging-its a rebuilt ac delco, about 6 years old that has always charged perfectly, except when the wire would slip (from alt to bat). My question is: I had pulled the 20 amp fan fuse and put it in another car, I forgot all about it untill I got my car home from the mechanic.
Could this missing fuse make the alt. test bad? I really dont think this alternator is bad.

Thanks

 

Putting in the fuse solved the problem, thanks for all the replies.

 

Hang on, so if you disconnect the 20amp fan fuse from the fuse box then the alternator was not working? I believe that is the drivers side fan fuse, is it not?

So if someone else was to take this fuse out, would the car then be able to start, i.e, with the power from the battery..... but it would then die after a while as the alternator was providing no power? Is that correct? Does anyone know why this fan fuse has any relation to the alternator charging system?

 

On behalf of Dr G:

Yes this is the case. Removing the 20A fan fuse does disable the alternator and cause the car to run off the battery alone.

Just for anyone else who might ask this.

 

That fuse feeds the generator "sense" wire, one of the 2 wires at the top plug of the gen. it turns the gen on and off and also senses voltage drop inside the car and from accessories and throttles the gen up or down to maintain 13-14 volts for the vehicles electrical system.