jdmb16acivic

So I got everything mechanical done, got the car tuned to idle and was ready to go road tune her and she dies...

My alternator isn't wired correctly.

So heres the deal:
I've got a 12v+ ran from the ignition through a 10amp fuse and than through a bulb for the charge light than to the alternator.

All the wiring up to the alternator is correct.

What i need to know is does the alternator ground out the circuit or does it ground itself out through the ecu?

I have a 90 civic turbo b16a, autronic smc ems. If grounded out through the old stock ecu can i just ground out that pin to a chassis ground? Please help as this is the ONLY thing stopping the beast from terrorizing the streets.

crxtreme89h

I'm not 100% sure but the alternator takes a pretty big load so I would think that it would be grounded at the alternator, not at the ECU.

jdmb16acivic

This wire basically just tells the alternator to kick on and start charging though. Its kinda like the sense wire on the starter, sort of. The circuit should only be live when the alternator is not working. Its the circuit that your battery light is on, on your gauge cluster. When the bulb goes out the alternator is working because it was sensed load and closes the circuit down and starts charging. Well thats how it should work for the most part. Unfortunatly mine doesn't do anything.