Working on a 93 Regal with the following problem. The car charges fine when the motor is not under a load (at idle for example) When the engine is under load the Voltage drops. Have tried 2 alternators and both check out on testing. Any ideas?
first of all are the alternators for your application?they may look the same and bolt up just fine but be internally different.the regulator in that style is actually a microproseser that has to be compatable with your on-board computer,or it will not function properly.there are at least 6 regs that i am aware of.you can no longer match them up by looks and say,"yep it fits"if you can shoot me the numbers on the alts i can verify if they are for your car.second of all,the cs style alt(what you have)can run at proper voltage,but have shorted or open diodes,only operating at partial amperage,which would drop the volts under load because it is skipping a phase or two(they only have 3)kinda like pulling a plug wire and hearing the miss.the alt will make a loud whinning noise in that case.third,are you having it tested by a competent rebuilder or "the parts store on the corner"?most parts stores dont know how to properly test them or read the results.autozone and other parts houses are a disgrace to the testing of alternators.(can you tell i have had bad experiences with them?) :rant: lets start with weather it is the right unit....send me the ##s.they are hard to read,stamped on the front housing of the alt,on the side by the large pivot hole....jamie
Jamie, what we could read is 11013100 105a then 8318 12v ??? Could not read last three numbers. This is a Delco number. We tested on the Autozone machine (new machine.) This is a winter beater car and I have hotwired CS alternators with a restistor so we may resort to that. Would prefer to do it right though. Thanks Doug
doug,your alt is out of a 88-90 park ave 231c motor.it does however use the same reg as your application calls for.bear in mind if this is a mass produced rebuilt unit,this theory goes out the window as the front housing isnt allways matched to the application.have it bench tested by a rebuilder,at least then you can be positive it is working correctly
Jamie, Thanks for the info. This is a Delco not rebuilt alternator. The yard I work with is good about gettting the numbers correct but they can be fooled by the rebuilders. I look for Delco stuff at the yard because I think that a used Delco can be better than a mass rebuild part. It looks to me like the exciter wire is not working the way it should. Is there any problem with going to a 12V switched with a resistor like I did on my GSX? Or will this screw up the computer. Again this is a beater, does not have to be pretty.
to tell the truth doug,i have no idea o No: i was taught a a young age "if your going to do it do it once and do it right"AAARGHH,I'M TURNING INTO MY FATHER!if you are handy with a soldering gun,and want to try,i sell a one wire reg for the cs :Brow:
