I basically need to know how it should be wired and if it will help with my voltage prblem. Problem is that it charges fine and has good volts if I am in park and at 1000 rpms or more. As soon as I put in drive it drops way down. Also it bounces to beat of my stereo or flash of my lights. It also drops a little with lights on or any thing else.
How it is wired. It has a wire coming from positive battery teminal which connects to a lug on back of alternator. It also has a two wire plug. On wire is thin and connects to a wire that goes somewhere on the drivers side. The other wire is a fat one which loops itself to the lug on the back of the alternator.
Car. Was a tpi car, now is a carbureted 327

 

yep sounds right, wires that runs into the car controls the dash light and also energizes it or tells it to work.

if you want the easy way out, get a 1 wire alt, only the 1 fat wire to the battery needs hooked up and thats it. It does the rest like magic.

 

Well for now, I would like to keep one I have ( money) , but the biggest problem I have is when I put in drive the volts drop from about 14 to 8 or so, so radio cuts out, dash light have trouble working, etc. Would like to know what causes this and how to go about fixing it.

 

Sounds like you may have a ground prob and a alt amp output problem.
Try a new bigger amp rated alt like 100-160 amp unit..

 

Where should grounds be. That is what I need to check out

 

There should be two form the battery negative post, one to the engine block (large cable, at least 4AWG), and a smaller one to the body or chassis. One more from the engine block, normally a copper braid from the back of one of the heads to the firewall.

 

I have all of those. I don't know what the heck is going on then. In idle, it is up around 14 or so volts, and it will stay like that all day, but as soon as put in drive, it drops and I can't get it to come back up. If it were alternator, I would think that it would drop over time even when in idle.

 

alt is not powering up with load, sounds bad.

 

Ya. I went and looked at it all again. I noticed when I rev it up the alt pully also goes in and out. I should be able to disconnect neg side of battery and if I dies, then alt is bad for sure, correct??

 

Well I just had alt and battery tested. Both came out good. So any more help or suggestions would be aprreciated

 

if they check out, your amp gauge is junk........

 

Even if gauge is junk, I still know I am losing volts because my radio cuts out and blinker won't work. But the thing is is all may gauges bounce aroung if I use blinkers or something

 

What size alt is it?

I got the 108AMP upgrade alt with 2000watt system n had no problems.

That or you got messed up wiring.

make sure your ground is good where it connects to motor.
ground straps from engine to body are good.

member juice really flows from - to +

 

I am now leaning towards grounds. So right now, what I can see is bateery ground to head and to body. Then a strap from firewall to bolt on intake manifold and that is all I see. Even with my stereo off, it drops as soon as I put it into drive

 

Fixed it. A ground strao was cut in half, and I couldn't see from angle I was looking at

 

bad ground straps can cause all sort of funky problems.

some folks remove em for looks then find out the hard way.

we fix so many problem in the Virago forum by suggestion a 2nd ground strap. As original goes to aluminum block, a 2nd to steel improves things.