Alternator chargine ISSUE

[whty98]

One more electrical issue. I recently did a cobra engine swap from a 96 to a 98 GT. I have a brand new alternator from Autozone and the damn thing won't charge. The battery light is on and the alternator gets burning hot in a minute or so (which is probably from it not being grounded right???). I compared the GT to the cobra harness and they use the same wires EXCEPT that the GT uses the white/black wire as a ground point on the alternator whereas the cobra's white/black wire goes to absolutely nothing! Reference ---->http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/sn95-cobras-24/602739-alternator-help.html

Any ideas on how the alternator is not charging and burning up? Could there be a ground issue within the wiring harness?

 

[whty98]

Anybody?

 

[98 svt]

...subscribing

 

[gq916]

could be a bad alternator. i would get the battery fully charged before you put it in the car. If the battery is close to being dead u might be putting a lot of pressure on the alternator to get the battery up to speed.

 

[SNAKEYE]

The white/black wire on the GTs wiring harnes is an external connection from the alternator's stator winding to the voltage regulator.

The comparable connection on the Cobra generator is internal, so the white wire is not needed.

To assure that there is no possibility that the B/W wire is creating a problem simply cut it at the connector.

The generator is grounded by virtue of being bolted to the engine.

Make sure that you have re-installed the engine block-to-body ground strap down near the oil filter. The GTs ground strap may be somewhere else, I don't know. In any case, re-establish the connection.

Other than that I think you may have a bad set of diodes within the generator, or a bad voltage regulator, despite the generator being brand new (aka rebuilt!). Take it back and have them spin it up on their test rig.