Ok I need to know how to wire up my alternater on my 85 Iroc TPI. I recently had a tranny installed, and the installer accidently disconnected the small tan wire that comes out of the two wire plastic harness from the alternater............problem is he disconnected it somewhere near the main wiring harness near the firewall, and since my car was previously pack rat food, that area under the hood is really a mess, and even after looking for hours I couldn't find where it disconnected from. So anyways, he said it needs to be connected to a 12V battery source, so I connected it to the battery, and the next morning, the battery was COMPLETELY dead, I mean dead as a door **** dead. So at work a buddy said that wire needs to go to a SWITCHED 12v source, so I tested out some fuses under the dash and discovered the easiest one to tap into is the one with the thick red wiring plugged into the box that says "IGN" , that wire has 12v with the key on, and nothing with the key off...........just like the guy said I need to wire that tan wire too...........so I wired it up to that wired, and drove off. The alternater was charging good and I went to park the car, turned the key off............and the car keeps running like I didn't even turn the key!!! WTF???????????? Need help please. I suck at auto electronics. I had to unplug that "IGN" thick red wire from the fuse box that I had tapped the alt. wire into just to turn off the car. PLease don't tell me I'm going to have to do that every time I stop!






(edit: accidently posted this on transmission board too)

 

The tan wire that you're talking about is a switch wire for the alternator, all it does is turning it on or off. What you need to do is to put a 300 ohm resistor between the tan wire and ingnition power source. The resistor could be purchased at Electronic City for mere cents. Don't even think about going to Radioshack, they don't sell that kind of stuff any more. You can also use 310, 320 or 330 ohm resistor.

 

did this ever work cause i dropped a carbed 383 in a tpi car and have the same prob except the brown wire goes wherever it went before (wire cluster through fire wall) and im not sure its switched cause i cant get a signal when i test it IGN on or off. The tan/white wire is unhooked and the thick red goes to the starter sol. The bottom wire goes to the batt.(thick red)