alt. exciter wire not doing its thing

[DeWitt Harrison]

On Mon, 21 May 2001 11:51:04 -0500, Dave Aukerman wrote:

 > Subject line says it all.  My exciter wire is not activating the alt. upon
 > start up.  I have steped around the problem by adding an extra wire to the
 > alt. and after start up I touch it to the jump post under the hood.  This
 > gets the ball rolling but would like to do it right.
 >
 > Where should I look to properly fix it?

If you touch the blue wire to ground, the alternator warning light should 
illuminate.
If not, then bad light bulb or bad wire or bad connection or bad diode
in dash. The alternator needs current via the alternator light to fire up.
Btw, go easy on taking the lead from the alternator straight to +12V (which
rather brutally simulates the current path through the bulb) the regulator
could become damaged.

DeWitt Harrison
88 5kcstq