1994 Volvo Penta 3.0 GL
The alternator stopped charging the battery, so I had it tested. It was bad, so I bought the exact same alternator to replace it with. During the process of doing the replacement I noticed it was wired a little differently than any other ones I've seen.
It had of course the ground wire, and also the "hot" wire coming from the starter I believe and running through what seems to be a 50 amp breaker. Those seem pretty much normal to me, but there was no plug plugged into the sensing and field prongs. Instead there was a jumper wire coming from the hot terminal and hooking onto the sensing prong. And that was pretty much it. After some investigation i discovered there were actually two more wires running towards the alternator with the ground and hot but they had been cut and connected together to form a loop. If it matters one wire is solid purple and one is purple with a white stripe.
Has someone made my normal alternator setup into a "one wire" or "self exciting" type setup? Why would someone do that? Instead of hooking back up the way they had it, could I buy a plug and reconnect it the original way?
The alternator stopped charging the battery, so I had it tested. It was bad, so I bought the exact same alternator to replace it with. During the process of doing the replacement I noticed it was wired a little differently than any other ones I've seen.
It had of course the ground wire, and also the "hot" wire coming from the starter I believe and running through what seems to be a 50 amp breaker. Those seem pretty much normal to me, but there was no plug plugged into the sensing and field prongs. Instead there was a jumper wire coming from the hot terminal and hooking onto the sensing prong. And that was pretty much it. After some investigation i discovered there were actually two more wires running towards the alternator with the ground and hot but they had been cut and connected together to form a loop. If it matters one wire is solid purple and one is purple with a white stripe.
Has someone made my normal alternator setup into a "one wire" or "self exciting" type setup? Why would someone do that? Instead of hooking back up the way they had it, could I buy a plug and reconnect it the original way?