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electrical system - fried car won't charge

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Ted

New Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2001
Messages
89
Here's the deal. I put the hot to the cold and cold to the hot when jump starting, for 1-2 minutes before I realized what the heck I did! The car will not charge. I changed the battery and alternator with no luck. What should I check next?

Thanks.......
 
Check the fusable link wires that go to the starter. You may find one burned up. If so, any parts store sells them.

If that doesn't do it, check to make sure the volt light in the dash comes on when you turn the key to the "on" position without starting the car. If it doesn't light up, your charging system won't work, either.
 
Hey Timmer...where would you suggest looking to find out why the volt lite on the dash would not lite? Mine seems intermittent, and interestingly, I have an intermittent charging problem.
 
Usually the light contacts come messed up, the light completes the circuit to energize the field of the alt. I had to jiggle my a couple of times to get good contact again. HTH
 
Ya, that light bulb is in series with the charging sense wire, and if it goes, so does your charging ability. :mad:
 
Explaining the circuit might help. With the key on, voltage must flow from the instrument cluster printed circuit through the volt lamp/resistor and back through the instrument cluster printed circuit, down the brown wire (ties into the cluster at the instrument cluster plug behind the instrument cluster) out to the engine bay and connecting to the back of the alternator (the brown wire ).

Troubleshooting: With the key on, check for bat voltage at the brown wire at the back of the alternator. Battery voltage must be present or the alternator will not charge.

If voltage is not present, pull the cover plate off of the instrument cluster and volt lamp and check for voltage on both sides of the volt lamp.

If you have voltage at both sides of the volt lamp, the brown wire has fried between the instrument cluster and alternator. You will have to pull the instrument cluster and pull the plug forward that mates with the instrument cluster, tie into the brown wire, and route the new wire to the alternator. Try a jumper wire first to see if you have found the problem before routing a new wire through the firewall. If you have found the problem, it can be a little bit tight splicing into the brown wire, but a new wire is necessary to fix the problem.
 
I couldn't have said it any better, Brian. On my car, all I had to do was take all the screws out that hold my gauge cluster in. Then, I pulled the cluster out far enough to get my hand behind it and played with the curcuit board attached to the back of it. I pushed the cluster back in, turned the key to the "on" position, without starting it, and moved the cluster around until the volt light shined bright. Then finally, I tightened the screws. I haven't had a charging problem since.
 
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