Help please Valk related--1985 tempo alternator wont charge!!

[slider]

Real strange problem here that  so far I have not found a answer to,I have worked on cars  for a few years under the shade tree but this problem has got me up a tree.  I have asked several mechanics,and none have had an answer  ..so far I have Replaced the alternator  on my 1985 tempo 2.3  four cyl. and it will not charge , the  new  battery  .So I  took the alternator off and had it checked it   worked just  fine on the test machine,  put back it on and still no charge,wires going to battery that carry the charge from the alt. are fine checked them for continuity,replaced the ignition   switch  still not charging,replaced battery cables still not charging,@#$#@  checked  the fusible links( all good)..still not charging. Checked the plugs that hook up to the alternator and they were right according to the book.    I cant see why its not charging ,the alt that I removed was working fine  replaced it. because it had a bad bearing.Have any of you ran into a problem like this??Suggestions most welcome,thanks for reading .The battery is new as well.Good news though my 97 bee starts right up..(now its valk related)

[Hoovey]

I just went through this with my 2001 Honda Civic except I had intermitent charging.Turned out there were two ground wires going from the motor to the frame and both of them were corroded. I cleaned them up and so far its charging okay. I was stumped like you until I called the local Honda service dept and they told me to check the grounds that it was a common problem on my car.

GHood Luck !!

[Pepmyster]

On the cables for the alt, you MUST have a 12v going INTO the alt to activate the field coil to start it to charge while rotating. If you have that, that ground can go through the mounting bracket. If that is all good, it could be because when it is on the car you have, it was built to turn in the opposite direction. Hope this helps.

[KY,Dave (AKA Misunderstood)]

I was going to say put the known good charging old alt with bad bearing back in and see if charging then. Isolates issue to new alt somehow. That's all I got.

[da prez]

Take a jumper cable and hook it to battery negative. Hook the other end to the alternater frame.
 Take the other clamp and hook it to the same negative on the battery. Hook the other end to a body ground. If the alternater charges ,unhook the frame ground. If you loose the charge , it is a body ground. If it still charges , then unhook the alternater ground. If it looses the charge , then it is an engine ground. As in the previous post , and as I always say ,"verify the grounds". Remove and clean all connections. Shaking some cobwebs loose , I seem to remember something something about a fuse box ground. There are four screws that hold the box in place , if you remove them , there is a ground strap under one screw. Dis-connect the battery before doing this. CLEAN the surface and if necessary , run a ground wire from the battery to the fuse box. Use a 10ga or two 12ga wires to make a new ground.  Hope this helps.

                                            da prez

[bentwrench]

Hey Slider
   Those old fords had the plug-in battery conn. that burned up and wont charge the batt.They should be converted to a bolt type asap.The other plug has 3 wires 1\ for ign.pwr. to the field 2\for stator sense circuit
and 3\ is an input from your insrument panel lamp or resistor that turns the regulator on.If the alt./batt.lamp doesn't light KOEO and you don't have voltage at that pin in the plug your problem could be in the panel.If you connect a test light to B+ and backprobe that terminal and it starts to charge you found your problem.
I forget the wire colors, the 2 outer wires should have 12volts key on and the center one will be about 7-9 volts ac with the eng running.
These thing were notorious for bad connections at the alt.look em over real good.
Edit,Like Da Prez said ground problems at neg. cable were common too.I found the wire colors,yellow is ign.field pwr. lt. grn for the bulb circuit.
BW

[slider]

Guys thank you,you have brought to light some new solutions I need to check out.