Charging question

Topic: Charging question (Read 1786 times) previous topic - next topic

Charging question

February 05, 2005, 07:18:55 PM

If the IVR on an buttstuffog dash tells the alterntor to turn on, what tells the alt to activate on a digital dash?
:shoothead

Re: Charging question

Reply #1 – February 05, 2005, 07:56:25 PM

I always thought it was the "idgit" light that activated the alt.

Re: Charging question

Reply #2 – February 05, 2005, 09:44:30 PM

Here's what i recommend.

Your alternator usually has 3 wires. One is an output, the other is a field, and then you have a stator.

The stator controls the dash light thingy and alearts discharging.

the field, is controlled by the regulator. It tells how many volts to put out.

The output, is volts that come from the alternator.

You can connect your field, and output wires and that should make it charge full charge 14.4volts or something. If it isn't that ammountish then you have a bad connection in that wiring.

You could also have a bad, alt. or reg. or something. But i don't think the dash has a regulator, i think it is only an alert response from the alternators stator wire.

Re: Charging question

Reply #3 – February 05, 2005, 11:32:55 PM

I have already changed the alternator 3 times
(all bench tested o.k.). It's a 3g 130 amp upgrade from a 95' stang. I checked the output at the battery and it is 12.3v. I then checked it at the alt & it said 85v, and the alt was getting hot. Yet my autometer gauge shows 12v & the digital dash says 3 bars. ?????????????????????????????????

Re: Charging question

Reply #4 – February 06, 2005, 12:45:12 AM

If you checked it at the bat and got 12 volts and checked it at the alt and got 85 volts, the wire between the battery and the alt is either broken, burned or missing altogether. For you to have a 70 volt drop between the two ends of that wire you would have one helluva lot of resistance!

When you installed the 3G, did you connect the "sense" wire? It is the white/black wire in the regulator plug, and it goes into a small terminal on the side of the alternator. Without that wire connected the regulator will "full field" the alt and cause it to go full bore:

If your alternator is putting out that much power you don't have a problem with it "turning on", you have a problem with it turning off (the regulator's job). The regulator won't know when to turn off if it sees no power on that sense wire (if it sees 0 volts it will assume the battery is dead and will put out full power).

Once you get that straightened out it's time to figure out where all that power is going. If the alt really is putting out 80 volts but you're only reading 12 at the battery the power is simply not getting there. Check your wiring and make sure you've connected the alt output to the battery with a large gauge wire (six or larger). On mine, as you can see in the pic above I not only used a 6-gauge wire straight to the battery, I also connected the factory orange/black alt wires to the output terminal.

Re: Charging question

Reply #5 – February 06, 2005, 01:59:45 PM

Thanks for the help guy's

Re: Charging question

Reply #6 – February 06, 2005, 03:57:04 PM

The Instrument Voltage Regulator (IVR) provides a regulated 5 volts that is only used by the instrument panel. It has nothing to do with controlling the alternator.
A wire from the alternator voltage regulator controls the charge indicator in the instrument panel.