Alternator Wiring

[76was124]

Hey guys,

I tore off a wire on the alternator the other day. It was purple, so I soldered it to the other purple end on the engine bay harness.

Couple questions.
1. Was everything working correctly before the wire was tore off?

2 When you said Tore off, did you mean the wire broke in two, and you just reconnected it at the break point?


If the answer is Yes, and No correspondingly, could you have reconnected the wire to something entirely different? Back to a previous post's comment about, purple, vs purple and black stripe wires.


Soldering wouldn't damage anything unless you melted other connections from excessive heat or extra solder or the iron shorted across terminals wit power on them. (of course disconnecting the battery whenever working around the alternator is vital for fire and safety reasons if nothing else..)

[SteinOnkel]

1. Was everything working correctly before the wire was tore off?

2 When you said Tore off, did you mean the wire broke in two, and you just reconnected it at the break point?

1. Yes

2. Yes. Unless there is a second wire there that is also purple, I reconnected the right one. The break was clean and the connector was still attached to the radiator. I was tightening my upper strut mount and it's impossible to not come into contact with the wires.

Battery was disconnected, as I don't like getting zapped working around the alternator. I've built entire car harnesses from scratch so I know I didn't break anything by soldering.

Don't just bin it, have it tested to verify whether it actually is the problem. Even if it tests out bad you will still need to vet out the wiring to ensure that there are no other issues which caused the alternator to fail. You really need to have an accurate understanding of the systems your working with before you start pulling wires and such. Sometimes you have to slow down and reflect upon things before taking action.

I see where you are coming from, but it's an alternator, ya know? I like for my cars to be in tiptop shape for mission critical items and usually I just replace alternator, battery and starter pre-emptively. Since I started doing that, I haven't needed a tow.

[SteinOnkel]

And sorted!

Had the alternator tested at Autozone and to my avail it was fine. Replacement would've been $65, but no that would be easy...time to tackle some jankerton Fiat wiring. The wiring on this car has been redone by a "professional" on the previous owner's behalf. Whoever did it really lends truth to the fact that anyone you pay to do something can call themselves a professional.

Anywho, it turned out that they had simply removed all the bulbs for the hazard indicator, Seatbelt light and Brake warning light. Well, these are wired into the same circuit as the warning light for the alternator. This I only know because of the excellent wiring diagrams that were provided in another thread.

That was part of the issue and the rest was the fact that I disconnected the two switches underneath the manifold. One of them has keyed +12v on it and as soon as I connected that to a load (namely my new electric fuel pump) everything is gucci. 13.0V at idle, 13.8 at 1800 rpm with a battery that spent three days connected to a very nice 55amp battery charger.

Everything works MUCH better now. The turn signals and wiper are much faster, the gauges read more accurately etc.

Cheers
Steiny