Quick question. My friend is having an issue with his alternator wiring, the single wire that leads to the sensor on the engine does not burn out, and one of the wires that loops back onto the alternator is good as well. But the last wire that's also looped to the same spot on the alternator keeps burning up.

Can anyone show specifically where the wires are to be routed to? Can't find any info online about it.

It's for a 1981 Honda Civic 1.3. Thanks!

 

Up top.

 

There are (4) wires coming out of the alternator.

The big one (White) goes directly to the battery, ignition switch, starter solenoid, and all circuits that appear to be hot with the ignition off.

The White / Red goes to the regulator

The White / Black goes to the regulator

The other wire appears to go to ground. No color on it.

It sounds like you have a short in one of the wires going to the regulator. I would check the wires individually to see if you have a short to ground somewhere. Some one may have pinched a wire and shorted it.

Let me know what you find out.

 

Ok great, here's a picture he sent me. Appears to only have 3 spots for connections. Where is the regulator located?

 

The voltage regulator is probably not built into the alternator on that. On my 81 Accord, it's a big box attached to the inner fender next to the battery. Likely the reason the wire is burning up, is because you have a bad ground from the battery to chassis or engine to chassis. Try replacing those with some bigger, better wiring, and add an extra engine to chassis ground. And get some nice new battery terminals too and clean them up. I think that's probably 90% of the electrical problems with these cars, and made EVERYTHING work better when I replaced it...

The grounds on the early Hondas were pretty bad. You should also probably look into replacing the big ~50amp fuse that comes off the battery. Those tend to get old and conduct less and less before they completely deteriorate. That could also cause the alternator to work too hard and burn up wiring like that.

 

He got it, thanks for the help guys

 

Sorry about the flipped numbers. Also I know its an old post but maybe it will help someone, hence why I had to make a schematic in the first place.