STiYLIN

I bought this thing and washed it up. It was all ok until I decided to wash the motor. Long story short when the car is running it won't charge the battery. I washed it over 3 weeks ago so everythign that got wet dired out. So with the 454's Throttle Body Injection it will drain the battery while running and when finally dead the motor will stutter and choke do to lack of electricity to run the "fuel injection".

That said here's what I have done. New alternator and new battery. New postive battery cable to the alternator and starter. Still the same issue. I recently found out there is "fuseable links" in the wiring of the alternator (to the alt bolt and this wire leads back to the firewall?) and one coming off of the stater/solenoid going towards the front of the motor. I cut the two fuseable links out and hard wired them with the proper gauge wire connectors. Still the same problem. I noticed another fuseable link up by the firewall and I suspect that to be in the alternator charging circut also, can anyone confirm? I have a wiring diagram but wish I could see another one in person to go off of.

Everything other than that on the vehicle works fine. I am serious at a loss here. I am SO stumped and don't even know what to check next. The muffler bearings seem tight and lubed so I can't imagine what it could be.

golfer

Along with the large cable from the positve battery terminal there are two red wires at the starter " batt " terminal and both have fusible links. One of those red wires runs back to the junction block mounted on the firewall.

The red wire from the stud on the rear of the alternator runs back to that junction block and it has a fusible link.

Is the charge / battery light on when this happens?
Also is the negative cable that runs from the battery to the alternator mounting bolt in good shape ?

STiYLIN

First off thank you for trying to assist me.

"Is the charge / battery light on when this happens?"

No, the red light? that used to come on no longer does at the voltage meter on the dash. That guage is totally dead even when I know the battery is at full charge.

"Also is the negative cable that runs from the battery to the alternator mounting bolt in good shape ?"

I will double check when I get home but from what I remember the alternator being grounded on the alternator mount with a bolt that is in good shape as is the wire (at least upon external inspection).

What cables are actually attached to the alt.

1. Red cable that goes from the stud on the back of the alt to the battery

2. Red cable that comes from the firewall? that had a fuseable link that is connected to the same stud on the rear of the alt.

3. Two wires connected together that clips with a plastic clip into the side of the alt (assuming this is for the voltage regulator?) that also seems to lead to the drivers side firewall?

4. Black wire from alt mount to the batt (need to double check this when I get home) so IIRC it's not attached to the alt directly.

golfer

IIRC there arered and brown wires from the plastic plug of the alternator. The red wire is the sense line for the regulator to engage or not... also provides the excitation voltage for the brushes inside the alternator. This wire should go to the junction block mounted on the firewall then from there continue down to the starter solenoid" batt " stud ... same point as the positvecable from the battery. At that point there is alsoa fusiable link.

The brown wire( may look black ) is for the charging lamp and should go to the dash harness. If it goes to the junction block with the red wire try diconnecting the brown wire from the junction block.

The red wires on the stud are the output from the alternator.

The ground cable from the battery is attached to the bottom mountingbolt which runs through the alternator housing.

It's obvious the alternator is not turning on ... is it due to an open wire or corrosion at the connection points or the plastic plug causing excessive voltage drop or no flow.

It's odd I regularly wash down the engine in my 86 and have never had an issue.

STiYLIN

Thanks again for trying to help a nooby identify his issues.

So I knew it was something simple. But not this simple. I amready replaced it once, but I must have shorted it out again and burned to gage/idle 20watt fuse. I replaced it an immediatey my bat starts charging. WOOT for fixing it. Still LoL'ing about what it was. I guess when you rule out the hard stuff there is only easy stuff left