Alternator

[trackersteve]

Been having a little fun w/ Frankie for past few months
We just has the alternator rebuilt:

1) After hooking it up my son told me the alternator warning light was on, and the key was not even in.
This has never happened.

2) I hooked a grounded "light" between the alternator "B+" and the starter and the tester's light comes on.
meaning there is a pos and neg between the "B+" and pos side of the starter. That does not seem correct.

Sounds like a short, but where?

Have check the wiring several times, everthing works on the car,.

What is going on???

[Marc]

There should be a large-gauge wire going between the alternator B+ and the positive stud on the starter solenoid, or to the battery positive post via a connector under the back seat...depends upon what style of harness the car has, could even have both. What year's the car (or is this a custom harness)?
Point is, the only way you should be able to light a testlamp where you've described is if there's an open in the B+ wiring.
Is there a current drain on the battery? Disconnect a battery cable and put your testlamp between the cable and the battery post, it should not light if everything's off (including domelamp, radio memory, etc.)

[trackersteve]

Thanks Marc,
Had Frankie running great, until alternator change out.
Test light "lights up" between the starter and alternator when all is hooked up (short in the alternator)?
When I "unhook the DF wire the tester light goes out".
There is a short someplace, nothing was changed out but the alternator.
Lost

[Marc]

...Test light "lights up" between the starter and alternator when all is hooked up (short in the alternator)?

Like I said before, when everythig is hooked up there'll be a current path from B+ on the alternator to the positive post on the solenoid, so a test light across those two points should not light.

...When I unhook the "DF" wire the tester light goes out.
There is a short someplace, nothing was changed out but the alternator.
Lost

That does sound like the alternator's gotta go back to the shop. Field winding lead must be shorting out against something inside.

[crazy tarzan]

I replaced an alt in one of my vehicles with a rebuilt one from a chain store. After a few days the battery kept dying (even with a 1/2 hr commute to and from work at highway speeds). Couldn't find any shorts and it didn't have any issues until I changed the alt (the original died on a 300+ mile trip at night on a weekend. . . ) Finally I pulled the alt out, swapped it for a new one and viola! no more battery drain. There was a short internally in the alt that caused it to pull juice from the battery while the vehicle was off, and if I didn't drive it for more than 12hrs would drain the battery dead.