I just put a new altenator on and a fresh battery. I looked at daddys 351M and hooked it up just like his. I pulled the meter and it read 0.013 when i put it on the prongs on the battery. So i pulled the voltage regulator connector and took a test light and was probing around. My "I" doesnt light up when i turn the switch on. But on daddys it does. What seem to be the problem?? And y isnt my alt charging?
That reading doesn't sound right at all. Are you sure you had the meter on the right scale and metric? Some meters have separate probe connections for amps and volts...I'm not trying to insult your intelligence by any means, but first I'd make sure you took that reading correctly because even on a dead battery you will still more than likely see some voltage.
Does the "gen" light come on when you turn the key but not start the engine? If it doesn't, then you have a problem in that circuit. The wire comes from the ignition switch, to the "gen" light, and then to the "i" terminal. The "i" terminal is what tells the regulator to bring the alternator online to charge.
So if my "I" terminal doesnt have any juice it's not telling the alt to charge? Therefore it's not going to charge the battery once the motor is running correct? So how do i fix it?
Fmc: I hooked the meter up red/red black/black. It's a fluke tester. Has three settings. And you're not insulting my intelligence. I'm not an electrician, this is all new to me. Expecially troubleshooting.
I think the 0.013 is either a typo, or you had the meter in the wrong mode. It sounds like you hooked it up correctly though. Keep messing with the meter on the battery till you get a 12v reading on the meter with the truck off. You may get 12.1, 12.5 or possibly the 0.013 was really 13 volts.
Once you get that working, leave it in that mode, and start poking around again. Probe the battery again with the engine running. The voltage should be around 14 volts if it's charging. If the voltage is the same or lower than the reading you got with the engine off, then it's not charging(you probably already know this, but lets just go through it all again).
Probe the "I" terminal again for voltage with the key on and the engine running. If you do not have voltage on the "I" terminal, I would get a short piece of wire, hook one end to the bat + and the other end to the "I" terminal. Then start the truck and measure the voltage at the battery again and see if it's charging. If it is charging, then we are definitely on the right track, and the "I" terminal wire is the problem. Now comes the hard part;
If you determine the "I" wire is the problem, the first thing I would do is pull the cluster to get at the "gen" light. If this truck has been messed with, and you have a guage instead of a "gen" light, then that's your problem. Write back in if you have a guage instead of a "gen" light, and we will have to do a little bit of wiring.
check your fuse marked ignition and is your idiot light bulb any good??
Im assuming your working on a 70's truck?? it would have a external regulator then,
F -field - S - stator - I - ignition - A - battery
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