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Charging light still on after doing all this......... 200 1986

Here's how my weekend started. On Saturday afternoon, I looked down at the dash idiot charging light to find it on as I was accelerating. Easing up it dimmed somewhat but never went out. I got home and checked all the connections and all was well. I drove to Autozone where I bought the alternator for a charging checkup and they found a bad diode in the alternator and exchanged it under warranty. I installed it and the car started right up, but the charging light remained at 50% brightness. I then shut the car off and tried to restart it only to have it grunt and not turn over. I jumped the battery and it started right up but once disconnected from the jumper car battery and switched off it wouldn't restart. I took the battery out and back to Autozone this afternoon and they said it had a bad cell. The new battery started the car right up and once shut off, restarted with no problems what so ever. But, the charging light STILL remains on at 50% brightness. A couple of years ago, I had re-routed the small wire on the back of the alternator that goes to the gray connector at the firewall, so that's not the issue. I also checked all my wires and grounds to the battery, starter and alternator. All are secure. Where do I go fishing next?
I don't want to kill this new battery, so I'm not driving it until this is resolved.

Any help and direction will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post.
--
'86 sedan with 443,000 miles on the original engine and automatic transmission








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Charging light still on after doing all this......... 200 1986

Case closed. Come to find out that the positive wire coming off the alternator was corroded really badly inside the insulation. Just cut off the eyelet, striped back the insulation a little to new wire and reattached. Sweet and easy fix but frustrating as usual.

--
'86 sedan with 443,000 miles on the original engine and automatic transmission








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Charging light still on after doing all this......... 200 1986

I would bet a tall cold one it is the alternator ground wire (since I have been in dry country for six months...). I know you said you checked it see if it is secure but on three seperate vehicles that failure mode for me has been the rotting of the wire inside the crimp of the ring connector that goes to the crossmember or block. The fact that it happens on acceleration and gets better on deceleration is the key.

If you doubt my diagnosis:

1) Run a heavy guage jumper from the alternator chasis directly to a known good ground.

2) That being said, the fact that it will not run on the battery alone indicates that there is no ground connection from the block to the battery. Hook you jumper cable from the ground strap mounting location on the block to a known good ground on the chasis (no the battery!) If the problem goes away, the strap or either connection from block to chasis is bad.

3) If the problem remains, hook the jumper cable from the chasis ground location for the block-to-chasis strap to the battery negative clamp. If the problem dgoes away you have a failed cable (normally from internal corrosion) from the battery to chasis.

4) Finally if that does not solve the problem, remove the negative cable entirely and connect the chasis ground to the negative post on the battery. If it suddenly works, you have a bad negative battery clamp.

After all these steps, if it still does not work you need to follow the same troubleshooting process for the positive side of the charging system. All I laid out here is the step by step fault tracking proceedure....start from the location of the issue and work backward in the smallest steps possible until you find the fault.

Onkel Udo







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