alternator charging light
05-20-2012, 10:11 PM
#1
Teching In
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
alternator charging light hey i dont want to beat a dead horse but i just wanna be sure
i've searched a ton and still a bit confused. everyone is talking about hooking the brown wire from the alternator up to a resister or a charging light bulb and it sounds like they are saying to cut the brown wire and hook it up to your resistor/light thru to the b+. i have a 02 silverado 5.3 i stuck in a buggy with the stock harness stripped and only the UFB along with a painless harness. i would like to instead of cutting the wire and or splicing into it, it would be clean if i could pick up the wire after the ecm if it came out in say the c100 connector or somewhere but i dont know where it comes out. i started with the stock gauges and a full harness then stripped it away following lt1swap info and didnt think about the charging light since it was not mentioned. now im buttoning up the harness and i need to stick the light in and hook up the wire but i wasnt sure which wire it was before let alone now that i stripped the excess wires. but if nobody knows where the brown wire ends up after the ecm then correct me if im wrong, i can just solder a splice onto the brown wire and hook that up to my bulb(non led?) right? and then leaving the wire intact going to the ecm will also provide the resistor for back up incase the bulb fuses together and shoots straight b+ to the alternator? or i suppose the resistor needs to be inline with the charging light in order to act as insurance? Im not really sure 1 more thing is i am looking at the alternator faq and am looking at the diagram for the 2001 truck and it shows that the brown wire does not go through the ecm before it goes to the charging light. i thought people were saying those year engines had the brown wire going to the ecm first. thanks for any info you can give me
-jesse
also why are people getting rid of their lights and just using resistors? if the light isnt worth it I'd rather just leave it as is but not sure. I thought the lights worked good
i've searched a ton and still a bit confused. everyone is talking about hooking the brown wire from the alternator up to a resister or a charging light bulb and it sounds like they are saying to cut the brown wire and hook it up to your resistor/light thru to the b+. i have a 02 silverado 5.3 i stuck in a buggy with the stock harness stripped and only the UFB along with a painless harness. i would like to instead of cutting the wire and or splicing into it, it would be clean if i could pick up the wire after the ecm if it came out in say the c100 connector or somewhere but i dont know where it comes out. i started with the stock gauges and a full harness then stripped it away following lt1swap info and didnt think about the charging light since it was not mentioned. now im buttoning up the harness and i need to stick the light in and hook up the wire but i wasnt sure which wire it was before let alone now that i stripped the excess wires. but if nobody knows where the brown wire ends up after the ecm then correct me if im wrong, i can just solder a splice onto the brown wire and hook that up to my bulb(non led?) right? and then leaving the wire intact going to the ecm will also provide the resistor for back up incase the bulb fuses together and shoots straight b+ to the alternator? or i suppose the resistor needs to be inline with the charging light in order to act as insurance? Im not really sure 1 more thing is i am looking at the alternator faq and am looking at the diagram for the 2001 truck and it shows that the brown wire does not go through the ecm before it goes to the charging light. i thought people were saying those year engines had the brown wire going to the ecm first. thanks for any info you can give me
-jesse
also why are people getting rid of their lights and just using resistors? if the light isnt worth it I'd rather just leave it as is but not sure. I thought the lights worked good
05-21-2012, 12:54 PM
#2
I thing you mis-interpet the Light vs Resistor need.
the Light or Resistor is needed depending on what year and Alternator setup you have. If you wiring up the Alternator to a full 12+ voltage from your old car system, you will fry the alternator in a short period of time. The Activation terminal requires around 5v(?, correct me here guys) to activate the alternator to charge. By using the old wirig (usually or could be 12volts) and adding inline the Light Bulb or resistor will reduce the Voltage to the correct level voltage it will activated the Alternator safely. On plus of using the Light blub is it also will work as your old Charnging indicator light.
But many will do alway with the Light bulb or resistor and let the ECM handle the activation.
BC
the Light or Resistor is needed depending on what year and Alternator setup you have. If you wiring up the Alternator to a full 12+ voltage from your old car system, you will fry the alternator in a short period of time. The Activation terminal requires around 5v(?, correct me here guys) to activate the alternator to charge. By using the old wirig (usually or could be 12volts) and adding inline the Light Bulb or resistor will reduce the Voltage to the correct level voltage it will activated the Alternator safely. On plus of using the Light blub is it also will work as your old Charnging indicator light.
But many will do alway with the Light bulb or resistor and let the ECM handle the activation.
BC
