B.L.Z.BUB Posted January 30, 2011 Report Posted January 30, 2011 Hey guys, I degreased my engine yesterday and afterwards it wouldn't start. So I let it dry out, then ran the battery almost flat trying to start it. Hooked up the Falcon and it cranked over pretty much straight away. Took it for a thrash to charge it up, this has always worked fine. This morning, it didn't want to start again, jumper cables again and away I went. Stopped for 2 minutes to pump up tyres and it almost wouldn't start again. Before I buy a new battery or pull the alternator etc I noticed this loose wire off the back of the alternator. Is this my problem? Thinking I may have dislodged it when degreasing. Cheers guys. Quote
ke70dave Posted January 30, 2011 Report Posted January 30, 2011 well its supposed to be connected to something. connect it back up, check your charging voltage when the car is running (should be 13-14V ish). there is a wiring diagram on K motor alternators in the FAQ i think. Quote
B.L.Z.BUB Posted January 30, 2011 Author Report Posted January 30, 2011 Hmm it says the charge wire is quite small. I would never have thought it would be THAT small. Surely not? At most I thought it would be a wire for a dash light? Quote
ke70dave Posted January 30, 2011 Report Posted January 30, 2011 (edited) could also be the "sense" wire for the alternator. where does it look like its supposed to go? the actual charge wire should be fairly chunky (compared to normal wires) and should be attached to the alternator by a bolt. Edited January 30, 2011 by ke70dave Quote
Twinky Posted January 30, 2011 Report Posted January 30, 2011 If it is the same alternator from the KE55 4K's there should be two wires connecting to the alternator. One wire connects to the body of the alternator and the other goes to a plug that sits on the back of it. If it is a 3 wire one I assume a second wire goes into the plug. To check out the connections you really should take the alternator out. It is a 10 minute job in and out so it pays to do it. To take it off, unplug the alternator (not from the back of the unit but from the intermediate plug in the pic) Unscrew the tensioner bolt and then the support bolt at the bottom of the unit. Drop the unit from the bottom of the engine bay or if you have the room lift it out. Inspect the connections and make sure that they are not corroded or too loose. If they are all fine you should unscrew the regulator (two small phillips head screws), check the alternator brushes and make sure they have plenty of meat left on them (They should not look short, shouldn't protrude about 1cm) They should be over the 1cm mark (roughly). BEFORE you do all this you should check that the alternator is charging the battery, get a multimeter and while the car is running (with no jumper battery attached) check the voltage at the battery, it should be 14v. If it is significantly less like 12v then the battery is not being charged. If the battery is showing 14v (approx) then turn off the car after about 10 minutes running time and disconnect the terminal leads. Check the battery voltage again after 10 minutes of sitting there and if the voltage is significantly low (ie, 10 - 11 volts) then the battery is not holding it's charge. If the battery is in fact holding the charge then you have a short somewhere in the system that is draining the battery. So it could be three things: Alternator Battery Short If you are a bit unsure how to check what I just wrote I can write it up with a bit more detail. Quote
B.L.Z.BUB Posted January 30, 2011 Author Report Posted January 30, 2011 Cheers mate. I'll check all that this afternoon. Car electrical.... *throws hands up in air Quote
altezzaclub Posted January 31, 2011 Report Posted January 31, 2011 the actual charge wire should be fairly chunky (compared to normal wires) and should be attached to the alternator by a bolt. That'll be the wire taking power away from the alty, but you have to put electricity into an alty to make the magnets work, so the alty power-in wire will be small. good grief! Its all here... http://www.rollaclub.com/faq/index.php?title=Tech:Engine/K_Series/Alternator Quote
B.L.Z.BUB Posted January 31, 2011 Author Report Posted January 31, 2011 Yeah mate, I'm useless, I know. Quote
Medicine_Man Posted January 31, 2011 Report Posted January 31, 2011 it is not necessarily a short that causes a drain, it is current draw.. that wire looks to have come off the supressor, quite common.. Quote
B.L.Z.BUB Posted January 31, 2011 Author Report Posted January 31, 2011 Yup it was the suppressor wire, which I replaced, hooray no more static! Took the alty out, checked and cleaned all connections, got a low grit sandpaper onto them to clean it all up. Brushes had heaps of meat on them. Left the leads off the battery while I did it, checked with a volt meter afterwards and was around 13v. Replaced alty, re-tensioned fan belt. Cleaned up M and F alty lead. Chucked the battery leads back on checked for corrosion etc all fine, tightened up. Checked battery levels, all fine. Checked with voltmeter again around 13v. Moment of truth, even though it wasn't getting much if any charge on the way home it started first pop. Running about 13.4v. Go figure. Hopefully it all just needed a clean and a tidy, though we'll see tomorrow after sitting for a night. Cheers guys for your help, and Twinky that was great advice and easy to follow. :y: appreciate it. At least I got a cool voltmeter gauge out of it :P And I feel like a tool for making a thread for this but Twinky's comment really helped. I really hate gremlin electrical faults. Quote
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