no altnator current

[ekdave1962]

hi guys i noticed my voltage out put is only 11.6 volts ?
vn v6 transplant
should be closer to 14 i would have thought , im thinking i have neglected to connect a wire to excite the altnator which wire is used for this and where should it be connected im using the full vn loom

thanks David

[ekdave1962]

forgot to mention i changed out altinator and the same results

[Jayme]

little square plug on the back of the alternator with 2 terminals, one has "S" stamped near it, that goes to 12V + on the battery to sense the voltage. other has "I", that goes to the alternator light on the dash.

[ekdave1962]

thanks jayme,

ill check em out , i should have a 12v reading at that wire when ignition is on then, i thought it would have worked with the full loom but i did get carried away and chopped a few wrong wires by mistake early on in the project


Regards David

[Holden202T]

ignition on and engine not running that L wire should be grounded, then with the engine running and assuming it is charging properly the L wire will then have 12V on it.

[ekdave1962]

hmm no joy, i found the 2 wires with out any problems but ?
i ran an active ssupply to the S terminal , and wired up I termainal with a led light and no reponse from the led ( and yes i did check that i had + from alt to + on led and neg to ground .
even swapped out alts again but to light and no change in bat volts when running i have the large red wire from alt direct to battery feed.

a little stupped as i check wire contunity several time and ever ran a test light through wires to confirm

any other ideas pls

Regards David

[Jayme]

LED doesnt flow enough current to excite the coils. you need IGN+ to a normal bulb then to L or a resistor of some sort across the LED to allow some current flow.

[Holden202T]

yeah should be able to use an LED, atleast thats what i've got in the gemini one of the super cheap LED's .... anyways you need +12V from ignition to the + terminal on the light/led then the L terminal on the alternator goes to the negative of the light/led

as far as the S wire on the alternator i though it went to he battery + terminal via a fusable link from memory ?

[ekdave1962]

ok thanks Holden202 it was the light connected the wrong way once it change to I termial as neg , the light worked, its bright when ign on and fades although doesnt completely go out, but with that curcuits in place votes are now 13.2 at idle and 14 + with a few rpms which indicated charging ,

as for the large active yeah im thinking your correct it should go to some sort of curucit protection ( fusable link ) have them there but not sure which one it would have connected too , will investigate and hopefully find its correct location ,,


Thanks
David

[Jayme]

haha make a fool out of me then !! from what I can tell it depends on the type of LED and alternator, ive heard of some led's that just dont flow the current to get some types of alternators to charge. others say it works with an LED but wont charge till you rev it. others still say it works perfect.