Okay, my 1987, Has a charging problem, and it is not the alternator, had it tested today, and it was fine. There is an exciter wire running from my oil pump because one of the wires was dead, but now it doesn't charge at all, as soon as you disconnect the negitive terminal on the battrey the car dies.

Has anyone had a simular problem or know where to start looking??? (I have Wire diagrams from the Haynes manual.)

 

as soon as you disconnect the negative terminal on the battrey the car dies.

thats normal

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www.marion-becker-nidda.de
91 Firebird 3.1
Modsynomax ultra flow stainless steel

 

Uhh... no it's not. The alternator should have enough juice to keep the car running when the battery is disconnected, otherwise the battery would never charge.

Joe, it's check to make sure that all the wiring is correct on the alternator. If you look in a Haynes manual they have an *excellent* process for testing your alternator. I know because mine died a while back. I had it rebuilt, and went through the process of hooking it back up. I forgot to hook up the regulator connecter though, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't charging Doh.

I'm not sure where you got it tested, but did they put much load on it? On my alt, it would only put out about 20 amps max, where it should be doing about 100.

Let us know how it goes.

Alex

PS. Search the board for alternator, because people have had this problem before.

 

Thanx AlexJH

Well, I had it tested for free at Canadian Tire and they said it was charging at 70 or 75 amps can't remeber, well I called the guy who owned the car before me and he said he cut some wires down buy the starter, so maybe somthing is grounding out, anyway, I will post back on this topic as soon as I resolve the problem.

 

Oh... I didn't see your location, I should have guessed that you had it tested at Crappy Tire (don't worry, I go there too :P). I think the alternator in our cars should be charging at 100 amps. I've got an '87 bird, so I'm guessing that yours in a 100 amp as well.

Maybe someone else on the board can tell us what alternators were available on these cars...

 

Find a voltmeter.. digital or analog, doesn't matter. Put it on the battery with the car off; it should read about 12 volts. Start the car, put the meter back on the battery, it should jump up to about 14 volts (technically 13.8). If it doesn't, the alternator's not charging.

Those cut wires down by the starter sound like a good thing to check! What's an exciter wire? How does it get out of the oil pan to go to the oil pump?


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
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