HELP! my car won't stay charged

[its turbo time]

Alright so i have got a digital dash and i made the mistake of pulling my dash off and i tried to drive it like that and the battery wouldn't stay charged and it eventually died. so i bought a new battery thinking that would at least get me home if not fix the problem. well that bought me about 45 minutes and enough to get me home but it died pulling in my driveway. so i hooked up the dash again thinking i that was the problem. but that also didn't fix it. THen i took the alternator off and had it tested at autozone and it checked out okay. Im wondering if disconnecting the dash could have shorted out something while i was driving it or possibly popped a fuse or fusible link somewhere. What do you guys think?

 

[suicide six]

Dash must be installed with all bulbs good.Esp the charge idiot light.This is one of those items that will drive you nuts.

 

[suicide six]

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143140&highlight=charge+light

 

[its turbo time]

does it matter which bulb gets put into which spot? cuz i made the mistake of putting a bunch of random ones that i got off of a spare onto my original dash and now the left blinker bulb comes on when the lights are turned on. and the volt light is definetely not turning on

 

[novaderrik]

pull the cluster back out and clean all the contacts with a pencil eraser with maybe a bit of rubbing alcohol, and very g-e-n-t-l-y pry up the contacts in the plug that is in the dash to get better contact with the cluster.
well, at least doing that worked in my Regal when the battery wouldn't charge. one way to tell if you have a bad contact is to see if the "volt" light comes on when you turn the key to "run" without starting the engine.
no light= no charge.

 

[DavzGN]

Here's another option to get the alternator working if you have an 86 or 87

Field Fix Harness

HTH
David

 

[its turbo time]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Alright i bought the new field fix harness and it still didn't work. Ive got voltage at the wastegate solenoid and it i traced it through all the connectors to the alternator and there is voltage present in the right place at the right connector that goes into the alternator. So theoretically it should be working since the alternator is getting a twelve volt source when the key is on. I also checked all the fuses and they checked out okay. Yet the damn car still won't charge. What else could possibly need to be checked? The only variables at this point on this car is that it has a volt booster. Which i hooked up right. And that it has a gauge cluster out of an 84 non turbo car right now. What am i overlooking?

 

[its turbo time]

ttt