Alternator Mystery 10.00 Pay pal

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

Spent the whole fukin day trying to get this to work. If you can figure it out I'll paypal you 10 bucks. God help me!!!

Spent about 2 hours on the phone with mechman. Triple checked all connections and continuity. Followed mechmans directions to a "T" on bypassing the factory harness and sending a straight power signal to the alternator from battery(for testing purpose) and also tried using an ignition signal to try and get this to turn on.

Finally switched out back to the old alt and all is well except that mechman has no clue and I have a perfectly good alt that doesn't want to charge at the proper voltage.

I hope this video will help explain.

I have a nasty cold so excuse my sniffles...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvaqwGxoG0Q

Update:

Had my buddy come over. He re-wired and tested everything every which way and then he hooked it up with only the factory harness to the alt. He had me test the system at full tilt. Turns out it runs @ around 12 V's with no dimming @ full tilt. Voltage reading was just bouncing almost all the way down and still no dimming or degradation.

We cranked everything up to its max and ran it for about 15 minutes. Sht was cleaner and harder then ever!

Then.... in all the confusion of WTF is going on here with this thing I put in some super low stuff and the whole system turned off and came back on in less then 5 seconds. I imagine it dipped well below 12v and the HU said fuc off

If I didn't have a clue then I am really fukin stumped now.

Click to read more...

 

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

I honestly dont think anyone will be able to solve this so I'm bumping the reward up to 20.00.

My friend is a 15 year veteran and for now..... he's stumped until further research

 

[mikelaubach 10+ year member]

Disconnect the wires from the alt output bolt and start it. What voltage do you see at the output stud with no wires on it?

 

[jeepintn 10+ year member]

i had something similar to this happen with a ho alt back in the day on my grand am, basically i wound up having to tighten the tensioner down about as tight as possible to get the belt to engage onto the pulley tightly enough to get full performance out of it. even if it looks like the belt is tight, those new belts and pulleys can be slick and need to be super tight against each other to have enough friction to work correctly

 

[mikelaubach 10+ year member]

i had something similar to this happen with a ho alt back in the day on my grand am, basically i wound up having to tighten the tensioner down about as tight as possible to get the belt to engage onto the pulley tightly enough to get full performance out of it. even if it looks like the belt is tight, those new belts and pulleys can be slick and need to be super tight against each other to have enough friction to work correctly

This has a spring controlled tensioner, so it's not like the old days where you can hang on the alternator to tighten it all up.

And with no real current draw (testing done with stereo off, right?), I'd expect it to be able to maintain a good voltage at idle even with some slip.

 

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

Disconnect the wires from the alt output bolt and start it. What voltage do you see at the output stud with no wires on it?

about 12v

 

---------- Post added at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

 

i had something similar to this happen with a ho alt back in the day on my grand am, basically i wound up having to tighten the tensioner down about as tight as possible to get the belt to engage onto the pulley tightly enough to get full performance out of it. even if it looks like the belt is tight, those new belts and pulleys can be slick and need to be super tight against each other to have enough friction to work correctly

the pully is tight and the belt i have on is optimal for this alt. alredy been down this road. first thing I checked.

 

---------- Post added at 07:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

 

This has a spring controlled tensioner, so it's not like the old days where you can hang on the alternator to tighten it all up. And with no real current draw (testing done with stereo off, right?), I'd expect it to be able to maintain a good voltage at idle even with some slip.

Thanks but theres no slip what so ever

 

[mikelaubach 10+ year member]

about 12v

Did it go up when you gave it more gas (increased engine speed)?

 

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

Did it go up when you gave it more gas (increased engine speed)?

Thats a big negative

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

yall mufuqqas connect the wires backwards or they did at mechman internally

 

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

yall mufuqqas connect the wires backwards or they did at mechman internally

We checked mechmans wiring with a DMM and stripped the harness down... At that point we ran it with the OEM harness which led to the update^

 

[mikelaubach 10+ year member]

This has the Ford 3G alternator stock, correct? It sounds like the alternator is just not turning on as it should.

You mentioned jumpering battery to the alternator for the turn on. Which wire did you attach that to?

 

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

This has the Ford 3G alternator stock, correct? It sounds like the alternator is just not turning on as it should.
You mentioned jumpering battery to the alternator for the turn on. Which wire did you attach that to?

The green/red. Mechman said that was the alt turn on.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Another guy had problems with his on CACO too. Are vehicles are just terrible vehicles when it comes to electrical. Have you thought about running an independent voltage regulator?

 

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

Technically that is what this is...

Ford Adjustable Voltage Boost Module 6GV2 - Mechman High Output Alternators Online Store!

But it didn't do squat but cause more confusion

 

[grimreper912003 5,000+ posts]

If you would like I can round up some of my good mechanic friends and take a look at it. Im stumped but Im local so maybe we can get something.