Long time wiring issue and electrical problem...new wires? Alternator? Please help!

[yellow1098Greg]

I have had this issue for a long time on my 77 trans am...the way I get around it is, every time I am done driving the car I disconnect the negative batter cable and hook the battery up to my trickle charger. If I don't the battery will drain in 2 days or so. This means i have a major draw somewhere.....it all started when the alternator was swapped out and the guy working on my AC at the time put a diode in some of the many wires connected..




Now I can't seem to figure out if the alternator is bad...or even bigger issue I'd like to ask about is all the wires coming off the alternator. They are all very old and frayed looking and always have been with the car. Which could be causing a short somewhere in them or the draw. How hard is it to replace and hook up all brand new wiring (from one of the companies on here) from the battery cables to the alternator? Is this a whole new engine or front harness? And can this be done with the motor in the car? And where do I find the how to?


The reason I am writing about this now is...after driving the car all weekend on the way back home at night last night after I have been driving the car all weekend the gauges and headlights and taillights and radio as I'm driving just started to get dimmer and dimmer until they were barley visible at night...which needless to say got very dangerous on the way home. I did not hook my charger to my yellow top for the 2 days of weekend driving ...so is this a result of a none charging alternator probably because of the wiring issues?


Thank you all for helping me diagnose and letting me know how to fix my horrible old wires and for helping me know what almost got my pride and joy smashing into by someone who couldn't see me last night cause I had no electrical at all and no lights ...thanks so much as always! Btw hate electrical issue

[dhutton]

If you take the alternator to Auto Zone they will test it for free. Seems like a good first step.

Don

[chpr1972]

Also check at the battery for a fused wire and broken wires at the alternator connectors. A fused wire at the battery will either be a short section of wire connected to end of another wire. If it is factory the wire will be red and will be within 12 inches of the battery cable. Some times they have a round black "tube" on it or sometimes it will be a smaller wire connected to the wire that goes to the alternator. You would not be the first person to get a new bad alternator.

[tooblue]

how old is the battery?

[yellow1098Greg]

The battery is brand new ...only a couple months old...optimum yellow top, once I hook it up to the trickle charger it does come back to full charger via the trickle indicator light

[shep]

remove negative battery cable connect a test light between the battery and the negative cable. If you have a draw the light will be on. Start pulling fuses one at a time until the light goes out put them back in if the light doesn't go out . when it goes out that is the circuit that the short is in. If you have a modern radio go ahead and disconnect the memory wire before starting.
Do you have an electric fan? If so check the wiring to it for a diode, that is a fix for electric fans back feeding and keeping the car running after the ignition is turned off. simply taping the frayed wires with electrical tape or re terminating them will help while troubleshooting as well.

[MonzaRacer]

Also when you try test light trick un plug alternator if light goes,out your issue,is bad alt. Also on that car if someone installed a,diode inline its,not required. 10SI alternator only need 12 v key on wire to on terminal from,plug. The other can loop to battery terminal with charging cable. Installed hundreds on tractors and such this way.