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92 Golf Alternator problems

Hey everyone I'm having a bit of a problem with my alternator/charging system. Well actually to be more specific I don't know which it is whish is why it's a problem. A few days ago I got the light on in the dash telling me the car is running off battery. I replaced the alternator and still the light is on. While the car is running, If I disconnect the battery it dies, and the vlotage measured accross the reminals of the alternator is 6V. Possibility exists that the "new" alternator is broken I guess, cause it is a remanufactured one. My real wonder in all this is could there be something else along the way causeing the problem? From what I can see the only place I may be getting some sort of issue is at the starter motor where the wire from the alternator meets with the wire from the battery. If someone could also please tell me what the small guage blue wire coming off the alternator is that would be great as well. I played with it, and if it's unplugged the dash light never comes on, but is that all it does? Also is there a relay that swithces between battery and alternator power?

Thanks a million Peter

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Reply to
Casius
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First of all you should never disconnect the battery while the engine is running. Since the "alt" light stays on I would guess that part of the circuit is OK. The easy way to check it is remove the alt plug or blue wire on the back of the alt and if the "alt" light goes out look elsewhere for the problem Next check is to see if you have voltage at the ALt RED wire(s) when it's unplugged. If you do then it's ok. That leaves only 2 possible causes.... 1-bad alt, & 2 poor ground to the alt. BTW, if you got confuses it's because I'm under the spell of beer!

Reply to
Lost In Space/Woodchuck

Hey not bad typing for a drunk man... I did check the alt for proper voltage with it disconnected and it was at 12 so that's ok. I assume that for the ground to be bad there would have to be a short somewhere thats loading the chasis of the car, cause the alt is grounded by the motor itself. To that effect I've measured the the voltage accross the the motor and the positive terminal of the battery which is 12, so it would appear to me its all grounded properly. Come to think of it I whould try that when the motor is running. If anyone has any ideas, please feel free.

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Reply to
Casius

There's no relay that switches between alt and batt, basically your car runs off battery 100% of the time and the alt is only there to keep the batt charged.

Have you revved the engine up to over 2000rpm or so? Some alternators don't start charging until you blip the rpms for a sec. They'll keep working after the rpms drop but just need a little kick in the pants to get started. Motorola alts are famous for that.

Auto parts stores like Shucks often have an alt testing machine. They can chuck up your alt in their machine, spin it up, and see if it's actually producing any juice. In my experience they usually do this for free.

Reply to
tylernt

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