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Have a 1990 Nissan Sentra in Mexico. It may have a issue with the alternator harness that affected the installation of a new alternator that was working fine for two weeks and died. A new battery was installed at the same time. Bad new alternators is not uncommon from my experience.
A few auto forums do the "direct cables" on vehicles over 10 years old to eliminate any possible problem in the wire harness.
I would be carefull I believe that Nissan alternators are externaly regulated. If you try to run a cable directly to the alt you risk cooking the battery as well as frying the entire electrical system.
I would be carefull I believe that Nissan alternators are externaly regulated. If you try to run a cable directly to the alt you risk cooking the battery as well as frying the entire electrical system.
This is true. Also if you have not seen it...well a nice overcharged battery will make a nice bang and severely damage your hood and anyone in the close proximity
Like I said, I'm not electrical savy but have a few questions:
1. The larger cable on the back of the alternator is the positive lead, right?
2. What in the alternator regulates the amount of charge to the battery?
3. What lead from the alternator regulates the amount of charge to the battery? The large lead or
The plug in.
The large cable carrys the charge from the Alt to the Bat. If the Alt is internaly regulated there is a regulator in the alt if it is externally regulated it can be any where. Dodge has some that are comtroled by the engine computer. Toyota and a lot of other Asain companys have them located under the hood. With out a diagram I could not tell you for sure. Yes the plug is what gives the Alt the feed signal that starts it charging it also has a wire that will either run to volt guage or alt light as well as the regulator if itis external.
The large cable carrys the charge from the Alt to the Bat. If the Alt is internaly regulated there is a regulator in the alt if it is externally regulated it can be any where. Dodge has some that are comtroled by the engine computer. Toyota and a lot of other Asain companys have them located under the hood. With out a diagram I could not tell you for sure. Yes the plug is what gives the Alt the feed signal that starts it charging it also has a wire that will either run to volt guage or alt light as well as the regulator if itis external.
This alternator is internally regulated. So based on the above, the plug gives the feed signal to start charging, and thus is wired to the large cable to signal the alternator to start charging the battery, right? I do not want to assume this.
An alternater puts out a maximun 14-1/2 volts with a internal volt reg that reduces the voltage to 12V to the battery. Anything over that will start to BOIL the battery. Have seen this on customers cars. With cars that had a gen and a separate outside volt reg the best procedure is to replace both units at the same time. Have seen a old volt reg ruin a installed rblt gen within a couple of days. Steve
1998 Ford Ranger, 4 cyl. / Problem is when alternator is newly install and hooked up it will fry almost immediately. I get continuity on the negative cable and nothing on the positive cable. This positive cable has two red 4 gauge wires. One going to the Starter which I get continuity and the other going to the Alternator which I get no continuity..Could this be what is burning up the alternators and if so what would cause a cable of this size to go bad? I see no damage with the harness....Can I run a new cable to the Alternator with a Built in regulator and this solve the problem? Any advise or input that I am on the right track in doing so would be greatly appreciated
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