[85chevyguy]

i built a 350 to go into my 85 chevy, pretty much stock. runs really well as it should. i had to put a new alternator on it and when i went to oriylies they gave me one with a different style plugin on the spade plug. i just took the terminals outta the plug and hooked the brown wire into the number 1 spade and the red wire into the number 2 spade. i started it and the voltometer read about 14v.but the dash lights kinda dimmed a little when it ideled. today i go to start it and theres nothing. i circut tested the battery an nothing. at first i though my girlfriend left the key on or something. but i put the battery charger on in it on a trickle charge. went into the cab turned the key to on and had lights. so i let it charge for about four hours, disconected the charger. and nothing. same as before i charged the battery. no power at the battery. two month old interstate battery.
did i hook up the alternator wires wrong or is there some freek draw in one of the power wires?
any sugestions would be helpfull
thanks

[EOD Guy]

Your description says you hooked it up right........ but the symptoms say one of two things happened, you reversed the wires and fried the batt.

Don't ask how I know this.....lol. anyway, did you happen to touch the alt when you hooked up the charger etc..... If you reversed the wires it would have gotten very hot, almost to hot to touch. That's because the internals are shorting out and draining the battery.

Or the alt could have come from the store with a bad regulator which would give you the same symptoms.

[85chevyguy]

no ihooked it up right the first time. whenthe bat is unhooked from the system and fully charged it reads 13.5v. thats why im leaning towards apower draw in ahot wire

[EOD Guy]

Not say'in you crossed the wires up but here's what happened to me.......

I put a new pig tail on my new style alt, I knew that I hooked the wires up correctly, I doubled checked!...... everything ran and seemed ok, I shut it down and three days later I tried to start it..... the battery was flat so I put it on the charger, full charge, started right up and had 13+ volts across the battery posts, shut it down and had 12+ volts across the posts...... so I thought everything was ok, next morning went to start it...... battery was flat and wouldn't take a charge, so I'm thinking bad battery, went to the store and got the 6 mo old battery exchanged..... no charge..... life is good and problem fixed....... so I thought....... three hours later, engine very slow to turn over, voltage across the posts was about 9 volts....WTF, while looking at the wire coming from the battery, looking for a short in my hot wire to the alt, I laid my hand on the alt...... man it was too hot to touch..... WTF... so I did a test from the wire on the pig tail to the now un-hooked battery cable... nothing and it should of had full continuity.... hmmmmmmm tried the exciter wire....bam full continuity.

Long story shorter..... I had reversed the wires at the pig tail, switched them and all is well.

When it's hooked up correctly, the exciter wire is grounded internally in the voltage reg or rectifier (not sure which) and that allows the idiot light to have a ground and illuminate when the alt isn't putting out juice, when the car starts and the alt starts putting out juice the internal ground is removed and the light goes out etc..... the #2 terminal (hot wire) from the alt is hooked directly into the hot side of the system and tells the alt to produce more or less juice depending on the demands of the electrical system etc...... if they are reversed you have a direct ground hooked to the hot side of the system and will drain and in some cases, fry your battery...... which is what your description of your issue is tell'in me.

[EOD Guy]

Seth, what are you trying to say?

[85chevyguy]

ok i hear ya. i will take some time tomorrow an play around with it. its been drivin me crazy not cuisin in it.
thanks for the break down eod guy.

[85chevyguy]

well found a little time to screw around with it today. i load tested the battery and checked out fine. im still suspicious about a bare wire grounding out.

[85chevyguy]

problem solved

[EOD Guy]

That's good to hear, what did it end up being?