Hey guys, not ENTIRELY sure where to put this thread, because...

i did an LT-1 swap in my 91, and it is somewhat a mechanical issue, but also may deal with wiring, but is electronic.. hahaha

i digress.

When we got to the last few pieces of the wiring on the car, we realized that the alternator was not charging, and figured out that the plug that goes onto the back of the alternator to excite it and make it charge, was not plugged to power. The wiring diagrams show that in a roundabout way, the "plug" is wired directly to battery hot. we achieved this by putting an eyelet on the wire, and hooking it to the little uh.... i'm going to call it a "block" where there are a lot of hot wires going to different things at different places of the car, located near the battery.

so, when the car is NOT on, i have to unplug the plug to the back of the alternator, or the battery will drain.

the alternator DOES charge when the car is running..

??????????????????????????? ideas? I don't want to have to (temporarily) ghetto rig a toggle in the cabin to make sure the battery doesn't die every time i turn the car off, in lieu of popping the hood to unplug it every time i stop somewhere haha..

I have thoughts and theories about what it may be, but i figured i'd pick your brains before i offer my thoughts. If you have questions LMK.

THANKS!!

 

You're sure it's the field winding circuit?

 

i'm not sure, no, is here a way to test that?

 

bump + tired of unplugging it every time i shut the car off.

 

The bolt on the back of the alt is always hot, the wire to the side plug of the alt has a wire that is hot when the ignition is turned on, this wire is what turns on the regulator in the alt, are you sure its not getting 12v all the time even when the ignition is off? but even so it should not be a draw unless is shorted.

 

well crap... i think that may explain it... if the "plug" is "ignition on" only, and not always hot, then, we wired it wrong. I need to tap into something that is ignition on only. that would make sense. The wiring diagram showed it as, like i said, plugged into the battery directly, via a few other wires. i don't know.. guess we'll have to review that again.