I just bought an 86 Civic from a friend for a winter car. The battery light on the left hand side of the dash is on all the time. The battery is good, the alternator was just replaced and is charging at 14.4 according to my Fluke DMM. I replaced the suprisingly shitty ground strap from the battery to the block with some good quality 4 gauge wire, and added a few more to various locations.

The light is still on.

Any suggestions on what the problem could be? I searched and theonly thing I found was "Your alternator is bad" which I really don't belive is the case in my situation.

 

I know in the efs, sometimes it means your eld is bad (electric load detection)

 

Check the connector at the alternator. I had a situation where one of the pins in the connector was pushed in and not making contact.

 

another thing to check is the wire running from the fusebox under the hood, the wire on the right side is the one running to the terminal on top of the alt. check for continuity in the wire between the wire. sometimes those wires are know to fry out and make it seem like the alt is bad when it really isnt. hold this helps