alternator is pissing me off.

[jay92889]

I've been through 3 alternators so far, and now i've finally got one that actually works fine. so what goes wrong next? the wiring to the alternator. the clip on the green harness to the alternator has always been broken, and it unplugs itself as it pleases. recently i've noticed even when plugged in i have to wiggle the wire 5 inches or so past the plug to get a connection. so not only do i have to check the plug and plug it in every day but i have to wiggle the wire near the power steering pump..

NOW THERE'S NO CONNECTION AT ALL.

this piece of shit car just keeps letting me down more and more. so the question is, before i start taking a bat to the car in a fit of rage, how can i find out which wire is the one not making a connection? is there a way to test this or continuity?

should i just get a junkyard harness with the foot or so of wires and just splice into mine as far up as i can go or what? the green connector isn't replacable..

[Losiracer2]

yeah i had that issue w/ the clip as well. I removed the damn thing ONCE and it broke. They shoulda made it outta metal or something. Plastic when it gets that hot isn't very strong at all.

So to solve it, take a zip tie and run it through one of the holes on the bracket and then loop it around the plug itself and tighten. It works on my car.

[jay92889]

yeah i had that issue w/ the clip as well. I removed the damn thing ONCE and it broke. They shoulda made it outta metal or something. Plastic when it gets that hot isn't very strong at all.

So to solve it, take a zip tie and run it through one of the holes on the bracket and then loop it around the plug itself and tighten. It works on my car.

It is a poor design, but the clip and and the plug falling out isn't the main concern. Even when plugged in there's still NO connection at all. I know it's a break in the wire, I'm just not sure where. Broken clip or not, when plugged in it's always provided output, until recently with the finnicky wire, which finally gave up.

How can I find out which wire it is? Should I be splicing the wires from as far up since it appears the break is below that?

[Losiracer2]

maybe did a fuse blow? since it was kinda not in all the way and causing current to go in and out excessively?

[jay92889]

maybe did a fuse blow? since it was kinda not in all the way and causing current to go in and out excessively?

Nope, that was one of the first things I checked. Not to mention the car will run still, but only off the battery. Which is completely dead now.. but great suggestion!

How can I test continuity in the each of the four wires in the green harness? Anyone?

[Losiracer2]

it could also be your voltage regulator, or the brushes could be worn out. How old is the Alt.? is it original? and how many miles are on it?



^^^ voltage regulator on right (part that has that clip for the plug) and the alt. brushes on the right.



^^^ better pic of the brushes. The copper part is what needs to contact the commutator part of the alternator motor. Kinda like any RC car motor, you have the middle part (commutator, and copper wire wound around that) spinning in a magnetic field producing current.

If you don't have the brushes, then there won't be any current produced, thus the reason why your alt. could be not running....but it also could be the voltage regulator that took a crap. Idk how you could test for the V.R. though. But to see if you need brushes, simple take the back off of the alt. and pull the brushes out....if they don't have any copper material left, then thats the problem.

If you end up needing one or both of these, PM me. I was going to replace my voltage regulator, b/c that's the part that has that stupid plastic clip on it that the plug hooks onto, but a zip tie was a HELL of a lot easier and more effective solution. A new VR from Honda is 145 bucks! ouch! but the brushes new are about 19 bucks on Majestic Honda.

[jay92889]

it could also be your voltage regulator, or the brushes could be worn out. How old is the Alt.? is it original? and how many miles are on it?



^^^ voltage regulator on right (part that has that clip for the plug) and the alt. brushes on the right.



^^^ better pic of the brushes. The copper part is what needs to contact the commutator part of the alternator motor. Kinda like any RC car motor, you have the middle part (commutator, and copper wire wound around that) spinning in a magnetic field producing current.

If you don't have the brushes, then there won't be any current produced, thus the reason why your alt. could be not running....but it also could be the voltage regulator that took a crap. Idk how you could test for the V.R. though. But to see if you need brushes, simple take the back off of the alt. and pull the brushes out....if they don't have any copper material left, then thats the problem.

If you end up needing one or both of these, PM me. I was going to replace my voltage regulator, b/c that's the part that has that stupid plastic clip on it that the plug hooks onto, but a zip tie was a HELL of a lot easier and more effective solution. A new VR from Honda is 145 bucks! ouch! but the brushes new are about 19 bucks on Majestic Honda.

Thanks for the helpful info, the alt has 149k and I replaced it about a month and a half ago. My original one went 230k before it needed brushes, which I changed myself, so I'm pretty familiar with the unit and its components and this one should already be relatively healthy. I do have a new set of brushes I carried over from my original alt when its bearing went out last month.

It can't hurt to check those components, and I'll be sure to tomorrow morning but I'm about 99.9% sure it's an issue in the actual wires leading to the harness.

Like I said, I already had two issues, one being the plug wouldn't always stay seated in the v.r., and sometimes even when it was seated in fine I'd have to wiggle the wires by the little clip they're in right by the ps pump and sometimes around the top of the cam cover plastic in order for the car to receive voltage. In fact I did this about an hour ago before I put my battery on charge for the night while the car was running and headlights on (using their brightness to check connection). I was able to get voltage to the car for one split second by shaking the black tubing the wires are insulated in, but I also saw a spark from either the voltage regulator or the harness near the alt as I did this. Now I'm not too sure if the v.r. is any good anymore and I wasn't able to get this to happen a second time, so I'll have to make a run to the yard tomorrow and grab another.

So with that being said, what's the best route from here? Do I need to chop the wires as far back as I can in hopes of cutting the damaged part of whichever wire has a break in it and resplicing them with another harness+wires from the junkyard? Is there a way to test each of the 4 wires that go the green harness to find out which one is weak and has a break in it??

Thanks for the help btw, losi. Very helpful!