Has anybody else had this problem??

My 86 caprice wont charge my battery. Alternator has been torn down and checked everything is opperational on that, went threw 5 alts. and nothing worked. Finally narrowed it down to a wire wich goes from the alt. regulator to the starter. I belive its not recieving a good connection to the starter because sometimes when i turn the key to start it it just clicks and usually works on the second time,(its a new starter),it could also be a fuse witch is inline with this wire (which happens to be the red one beside the brown one from the alt if anyone was wondering). I know the alt is good because once the regulator is ground (while running) from the back of the alt. it charges but puts out full force or if i run a straight wire from the red one (wich goes to the alt.) straight to the battery it will charge fine. Has anyone else expirenced this or is it just my luck?

try replacing your gauges fuse. That's what I did to fix mine :)

I did all that and the rest of the "major" checks as i stated I went through 5 alts and checked everything on all of them. I also checked all the wires for breaks and all of that was ok. Today i took all of the connections loose, sprayed them with some corrosion solvent, and tightend everything back up and guess what..............The muther Flippin thing worked.......

I would have done this first but the position that the starter was in (the wires from the alt. ran down to the starter except for the single one which ran to the batt.) made it very difficult to get to these wires. So today i put it up on the hydraulic lift, pulled all the wires out & cleaned them, then tightend it up and kapoof it was like magic. Anyways gotta love things like that which make u want to give up and sell the stupid thing, but at the end of the day it all works out & keeps u hooked for a few more RPM's......... Later....

ruberpoliceman,

Congratulations on getting it working. Just in case it acts up again (and I hope it doesn't), I had the same prob in my 85. The red wire is loose where it goes into the plastic snap-in connector that clicks into the alt. It will stay in the right place once I move it there, so I haven't replaced anything. But if I move it around, you can hear the alt belt making a whining noise, on and off, depending on whether the red wire is in the "right spot" or not.

Also, once, Sears kept telling me my alt was bad, not putting out enough volts. Batteries kept dying. Turned out to be I needed a new fan belt ! Even though the old one seemed OK to both me and the Sears mechanics.

Rage

that sounds kinda like the belt just wasnt tight enough which would cause the whining or screaching, if it was coming from the belt, especially since u said it looked to be fine. But anyways same here--glad u got it working.... Later