Re: Re[2]: WOT accessory cutoff switch

[AUDIDUDI@delphi.com]

>      Interrupting that "little blue wire" does not always shut down the 
>      alternator.  This wire excites the field windings.  The field
>      windings do not always become unexcited when voltage is removed from
>      that wire.
>      
>      You can test this.  Interrupt the blue wire, put a meter on the "big 
>      red wire" and ground.  Start the car.  The meter will read around 12 
>      Volts.  Now with the car still running attach the blue wire.  The 
>      voltage should increase to somewhere between 13 and 14 volts and you 
>      might even hear the alternator.  Now interrupt the blue wire again,  
>      if the alternator were to shut off the voltage should drop back to 12
>      volts.  I bet it doesn't.

You may be right ... on my 5000, I use a vacuum-triggered alternator cut-out
switch I bought and installed several years ago, and on my 4000, I installed
a hidden switch under the dash that I flipped before starting the car (I was
autocrossing the car in a stock class and this was one of my "speed secrets"
... it was also cheating, something I regret and no longer indulge in.)

But if you're right, why did the battery on my 5000 die 45 minutes after the
"check alternator" light came on late one night several years ago?  After we
poked and probed a bit, we discovered the ring terminal at the end of the D+
wire had broken ... since the light didn't come on when the car was started,
I'm pretty sure it broke while the car was running.  If the alternator still
functioned despite this, why did the battery discharge?


                /| | | |\  |   |\  | | |\  |  AudiDudi@delphi.com
               /-| | | | | | = | | | | | | |  Jeffrey Goggin
              /  | |_| |/  |   |/  |_| |/  |  Scottsdale, Arizona