Maverick5189

Hey I have a 94 honda del sol VTEC with the USDM b16a3 engine. i am having a very weird wiring problem, and as of last night i got another odd wiring problem. I beleive i have the second one figured out but my original problem is a mystery. My alternator doesnt seem to be charging my engine, this happened once before and after trying for about 30 mins to diagnose the problem i punched the underdash fuse panel and problem was "fixed" now its acting up again. I can tell i am having this problem when my clock on the dash begins to fade, and dim. also the speedo doesnt work. does anyone have any ideas at all? Bc i am totally clueless. Thanks.

NN4S

Check the fuse panel wiring for a bad ground connection; given that you stirred the wiring there before & the problem went away that would indicate a connection issue in that area. Generally, when an electrical system is acting odd in a sporadic manner, you can count on a poor ground connection in relation to the circuits that are acting up. When you blow a fuse, the problem is usually not something that comes & goes. It can, however, be attributed to a current surge from a poor connection in the circuit.

If all of the grounds are connected tight & have little to no resistance, I would then check the connectors to the fuse panel (once again because it reacted the last time you were "influencing" that area) by removing and reconnecting them. This will allow the contacts in them to scape against each other and clean off any corrosion that may be building up in them that could cause an intermittant connection.

If this still hasn't got you fixed up, you need to test and measure the alternator output (you did make sure the ground connection on the alternator was good while checking grounds in step one, right?) to be sure that you are actually charging and not draining the battery.

All of the problems you mentioned above can be attributed to a faulty electrical system / low voltage, so you need to make sure that all paths are connected and that the connections are good before you'll be able to reliably troubleshoot any of the component parts of the system.

Former User

Check the Blk/Yel wire that runs between fuse 24 under the dash and the 4P connector of the alternator. It may be damaged and have an intermittent short or open.

Maverick5189

Thanks for the info guys i am going to pull my fuse panel right now and check the blk/yel wire mentioned and start there as then with the grounds to the fuse panel as i put it back in, i got a new starter and that wasnt the solution to the second problem, so that was bad news. I also now have my brake seatbelt and clock come on when i try to put power to my starter... ugh without cranking so i will try the connections to the fuse panel bc that is where i am guessing all these wiring problems are coming from....