Alternator wiring.

[MetalFab]

Ran into a small problem swapping an 86 alternator into my 85. The alternator is setup with 4 wires, one to batt, one to ground, and two that are together in a plug. The new alternator has a plug that looks like a T (one vertical and one horizontal prong |-- like ) whereas my old and rather dead alternator has this huge oval plug with two prongs side by side horizontally (-- --) Both wires are yellow, one with a black stripe. Just hoping someone has any idea on this. Heading to town tomorrow hoping I can find the connector in the crazy pile of stuff that was ripped out of visio's ride. Thanks!

[PEZi]

hmmm... i wonder if my manual would have the diagram for that....

[captainzeros]

my 81 manual says it oughtta be two white wires, one with a blue stripe, it appears also to show a T shaped plug with the striped wire on the | section of the T.

The striped wire goes off the the auto-choke relay and the charge meter on the dash, the non-striped wire goes to the fusible link.


Edit: have a 1981 wiring diagram:

[MetalFab]

I'll see how this matches my setup. No luck on finding the plug though. I find it odd that they changed the wierdest things year to year on these rigs, and end up switching them back like that T plug. This isn't the only thing I've found thats wierd on this truck, almost wondering if it was originally a california truck. Too many things don't match the chilton book, I'll have to look for a FSM for the model year.

Thanks for the info. I'll test to make sure it's the same as the later models, gives me a whole lot more to go on =)

[MetalFab]

So this has me baffled, I found the wiring diagram in a chilton manual which is rather vague, shows a rectangle for an alternator, with two wires running to it (3, but 2 of the same color connect together before reaching anything) I don't have a scanner but I'll take pics of everything tonight. The napa website lists some 20 styles of alternator for this year, yet none of them have my plug style. I'm running myself around in circles, and remember why I have an aversion to wires. But I'd rather learn something here, and with help I am hoping to get this thing wired right, save 100 bucks, and get it done now, not weeks from now.

<img>http://partimages.genpt.com/thumbs/728261.jpg</img> See if this link shows.

Any clue what S and L(L/TRIO) stand for?

I am also confused on the diagram captainzeros posted. Anyone know for sure which prong is which on the T that connects to the alternator? Looks to me like the | part of the T is on the bottom connected to the W wire. On my alt the top of the T is closest to the edge of the alternator and is the same with every T plugged alt I saw on the napa website.

Does anyone have a good tip on how to figure out which wire goes to what? I am hoping there's a easy way to test this, I'm just not sure how to approach it. It seems one wire goes to a fusible link, then eventually makes it to the fuse block, and the other seems to go to all sorts of pin conectors.. sensors? auto choke, voltage indicator. OK say I hook up the battery and throw a jumper from the pos terminal to the striped wire, I should be able to light up a test light at one of the plugs on the choke relay right? or doing the same to the white wire I should get juice to the fuse block without having to turn on the ignition.

I apologize for so many questions, the last thing I want to do is screw something up. I did take an electronics class, but I also fried half my parallax circuit board before the semester was out.. lol ok, heading to the garage with camera.

[MetalFab]

Oops, it's almost 2 am, guess I got a little carried away in the garage finishing up odds and ends.

Took another look at the plug and realized I was wrong about the prong layout. it looks like ( | | ) only vertical, with the white wire being closest to the side of the alternator, and the smaller striped wire under it. Just like my very vague manual shows it for the 85 and 86 models. Looking at the alternators on napa online that match what I got, ant the T plug, I think I may have this figured out. The T plug is S for the top of the T and L for the | part, where the vertical | | is L on top and S on bottom, so from what I see, all I gotta do is flip the wires. Still don't know what abbreviations S and L are for, but it makes sense to me. (but it is almost 2am....)

It helps to focus my thoughts a bit in written text.. and I always notice something in a picture that I don't quite see when I'm staring at something

Anywho, 5 am comes fast