faithless

Well, I was a dip**** and forgot to mark which cables were positive and negative for the starter... I connected the positive to the ground and the negative to the solenoid. Tapped the negative post and it burnt a little divot into the post. We fixed that, car starts without a problem. But now I have more problems...

Immediately when I got into the car, the Antilock brake light was on and now it wont go away. The gauge on the battery is reading 10... I measured the battery and it is running LESS voltage when the car is running than when its not... The boost gauge would not seem to go as high as it should as well.....

Did i just ruin my car????? .......

ehall

educated guess...you fried your voltage regualtor. 18 bucks, and a pita too change, but no shop time needed.

anyone else want to jump in here?

ehall

btw did you check the actual battery voltage with a meter?

faithless

Yes, it was reading out at, iirc 11.6. Without the car running, 11.8.

I was guessing either the regulator, or the alternator. I'm gonna check the fuses tho.

ehall

FWIW My car always read a low number on the stock guage, until I replaced the reg. It went from right at, or just below the 12 line, too reading 13-14.

faithless

What do I need to take apart to get to these parts??? I'm looking on clarks garage and I dont see any proceedure to test the alternator. Is there a chance I fried the alt. or would the voltage regulator be the cause?

ehall

I think the reg. It is attached too the back of the alternator. It's a pita too get too. You have too remove the alt to get at it. Some say you can get too it w/out removing the IC pipes, not me. It's on Clarks though.

cpt_koolbeenz

Run your car for a while and monitor your voltage now and then. If your regulator is out, you will slowly (quickly if you have your lights on) lose power. The regulator is on the back of the alt... The regulator and brushes are one piece - so not a bad idea to replace the regulator anyway. While you are at it, run new power cables to the alt and starter with high temp fiberglass protective covers...

If you want, you can get a higher voltage regulator - some people maybe iceshark can tell you / sell you one... If I was at home, I could give you the P/N but I'm all the way across the country in D.C. for a week...

faithless

Thx, anybody else have the Iceshark regulator?

IceShark

Well it is not "my" regulator, I just use them on the headlight kit but will sell them to people if they need just the regulator. They are made by Transpo who sells to alt and starter rebuilders. They are in a lot of people's alts, I don't know how many hundred I sold, but many.

I'm a little confused though. There should be no negative cable running to the starter so not sure how you would switch the 2. The main negative that goes to the bellhousing should be too short to reach the starter. On second thought, the starter is on the right hand side so maybe it would reach. Anyway that is not where the negative is supposed to bolt up in stock configuration. The starter normally grounds (negative) through its mating and bolts to the bellhousing/block. Pretty hard to screw that part up.

Is it your ABS or Airbag warning light that is now on? Airbag warning is easy to set off if you disrupt power in some way other than having ignition off and taking off the battery cables in the normal fashion. If it is really the ABS light I would be more than concerned that something happened to the brain box. Like you fried something.

streckfu's

The only cables going to the starter is a positive from the battery, a cable from the alternator, and the exciter from the ignition switch. As Iceshark mentione, the negative from the battery connects to the top of the bellhousing.

Most likely, your regulator is fried which is not too difficult. I did this about a month ago using Iceshark's (OK, Transpo's) adjustable regulator and the instructions from Clark's garage.

I hightly recommend following the tip about loosening the tensioner from the A/C compressor and moving the compressor toward the engine to loosen the belt. It's much easier than loosening the tensioner and having to re-tension the belts.

faithless

The light that is coming on is a yellow "Antilock" light. I'm hoping it isn't messed up because the brakes work fine. I've had trouble in other cars with idiot lights coming on due to low voltage, so I'm hoping that is all there is wrong.

There are three wires down there: 1 postive, 1 gnd (its attached to ground anyway) & 1 small pos. jump for the solenoid. Why would the cable from the alternator be attached to the ground?? Or is it supposed to be somewhere else?!?!?!?! HMMMM I think were onto something here...... The cable from the alternator is on the ground right now.... is that how its supposed to be?

streckfu's

No!

You should have a line from the positive battery terminal, one runs to the back of the alternator, and the exciter wire to the solenoid.

That's it. Nothing to ground. The main system is grounded from the battery negative terminal to the bellhousing.

IceShark

Daniel is correct, but didn't explain it very clearly. There is a heavy cable that goes from the positive battery post to a large post on the solenoid. There is a smaller cable, a little under 4 gauge, which comes out of a harness that connects to the same post as the battery cable which runs up to the alternator. Both the cables are black in OEM configuration. And they are cables not small wires.

Then there is a smaller, usually red, wire about 10 or 12 gauge that comes out of the harness the alternator cable is in. That is the solenoid trigger wire and it goes to a smaller post on the solenoid.

That is it for wiring down there. If you have something else who knows what happened.

streckfu's

Thanks for the more consice explanation.

I just re-read my post. Ouch. I suck at the description.