alternator not charging

[Bluedriftwood]

Same old question I am sure, just a new guy, I have wired everything in with a new harness have a single wire alternator, it shows discharge when the lights are on but never a charge what should I be looking for..

[F Bill]

Well, not much to go wrong with a single wire alternator...How did you wire in your ammeter? or do you have a Voltmeter?

First thing I would do is while it is running, do the junkyard test...Take a screwdriver and try to touch the rear bearing area of the case.. If it is charging at all it should have a decent amount of magnetism. Watch the belts etc and be safe while doing it.  If there is no magnetism or a very tiny amount, the alternator is suspect, and simply bringing it to the test stand in your local auto parts store might save you a lot of time testing it out.

Where did you get a wiring harness built for your 12 volt jeep?

[Shalka04]

Just so there's no mystery about what I did on Thanksgiving, let me show ya a picture of how I wired up my right side.
A few things that I went with that may or may not be worth considering.
1) �I ran the hot wire from the alternator to the same lug on the starter that the battery connects to. �I figured this was the cleanest and shortest path, to get the spare electrons back into the battery.
2) �I ran a #10 ground wire from the available screw hole in the alternator to the bolt on the engine block where the generator once lived.
3) �I went with a volt meter as opposed to an ampmeter just because I thought the voltmeter was a little cleaner and safer to run.

let me know if you have any questions about what I did.

-John

[Carls_jeep]

You did good John and you really don't need an ammeter. As long as you have the volt meter hooked up so it only works when the ign switch is on there won't be a problem. If the volt meter is reading voltage all the time it will run the battery down. To take care of that problem you may have to run the volt meter through a relay that comes on when the ign switch is turned on.

Personally I prefer an ammeter but very few vehicles use an ammeter these days. My Ranger has a volt meter and on the way home one time I nearly had a serious issue when I realized the lights were getting dim. The volt meter was still showing where it normally does. The closer I got to home the more lights I turned off. I used the park lights and driving lights to get home rather than the headlights. If I had an ammeter I would have seen there was no charge going on long before that happened.

Bluedriftwood, now that's a catchy name. Do you have a VOM meter? If you do then check the battery voltage with the engine off. Start the engine and while the engine is running a little above idle check what the battery voltage is then. The battery should have a static voltage reading of about 12.7 v and with the engine running it should show from 13.7 to 14.7 v. Another way is to have one of the cheap ammeters that just lay against the output wire and will show the output if there is any.

Tell us what you find.  

[Bluedriftwood]

My wiring harness came from walchs, and yes I also had the alternator tested and was putting out a charge just fine , will let study all the suggestions, thanks