I've lost a fog light and a headlight in a span of 10 days. I had problems with the alternator. Got it to work again but it seems like it may be overcharging. My battery reads like 16volts on the voltmeter, which is way too high. What should I do? Is there a fuse? I'm in a bad spot because someone else rewired the car during the 350 swap, so I have no idea where anything is.

 

16 is safe but pushing it. start with new battery if it still charges high swap the alt before it fries a battery...
EFI?? or carbed???

 

It was a 305 TPI, now it's a carbed 350....it was reading between 16 and 17 volts on me....head/fog lights are expensive.

Apparently the voltage regulator is in the alt itself....so it shouldn't be a wiring problem per se, as long as the alt is grounded correctly. I dunno...

 

if the battery is com toast it will make alt over charge.after so long it fubar's the alt..... and it will cintinue to over charge hit it with a hammer.
don't go rapping on it just a few light slam's..

 

WD-40 dose well.........on alt's....and regulator's...

 

Regulator is in the alternator, but there is a sense line coming into the alternator. Also, some alternators run the excitor voltage through the light in the dash. If you wire direct to alternator without the bulb inline, it causes problems.

My advice, take the alternator to Autozone and have it tested for free. If it's bad, you know that's the problem. If it tests ok, then you know there is a wiring problem.

 

Yea, apparently there is 1 connector that plugs in and runs to the battery and has an inline fuse. Then on the other side of the alternator is a 2nd plug that runs to the firewall. I'm guessing that is the plug that is causing me problem. I don't want my battery to explode, so I have to run some kind of diode or something on that 2nd plug to get the alternator to regulate again.