Help! 1987 chevy suburban 1/2 ton not charging battery. New alternator, Battery, checked grounds.?

Question

So if I run the wire from the Battery (+) to the back of the alternator(that says batt.), is that a temporary fix or can i leave it on all the time? also 8 gauge would be fine.

Answer 1

i own a repair shop and your talking about going to a one wire alternator and that will be fine on it,that's how most of them are anyway,the one wire deals charge a lot better any way, i am working on a 91 model right now that i went to a one wire deal on,and it works real good,but that should take care of the charging problem with it,good luck hope this helps.

Answer 2

Does this mean that the fat wire you ran from the alt. output on the back of the alt. to the battery has repaired the problem? If so, yes you can leave the wire as is as it is kind of hooked up this way anyways. The way they connect from the factory is to attach the charge wire to the starter cable at the starter through a fusible link. The way you have it is workable, but it is not circuit protected by way of the link. An 8 guage sounds okay, just make it the same as it was before. You sound like the fusible link got cooked and that was the problem, so now you have some type of a stub connection that is live close to the starter. I would inspect and cut that part out too before anything else can happen. The charging cable you installed has to be able to handle in the neighborhood of 80-100 amps at times. Good luck.

Answer 3

Yes, you can replace that "exciter" wire with whatever you want of a similar diameter. Since you are positive that all connections are tight and clean, here is a piece of news: "new" alternators are anything BUT new. You can buy it at a local parts store for $40 or at a dealership for $300 - they all are rebuilt. What that means is: dealer mechanics sometimes replace 2-3 alternators before they run into a good one. This is officially called DOA - Dead On Arrival. You very well may be dealing with this reality...

Answer 4

You can leave it that way. on a GM here is how thy hook up the alt norminal.
Thy run a wire from the alt to the starter then run another from the starter to the battery. All you are doing is not running it from the alt to the starter
just disconect the wire from the back of the alt and run the new one

Answer 5

How is your battery? it may not be taking a charge.You can get it checked for free at Auto Zone.Also, check for a break in the harness for the Alt. Also check for corrosion at Battery terminals.Make sure the posts are clean and terminals are tight.Remove cables and make sure that the posts are clean and the terminal ends are clean also.

Answer 6

CHECK OUT THE WIRES A WIRE COULD BE BURNED.