Hi everyone. i have a 1996 pontiac sunfire gt and I just replaced my starter and that's all hooked up fine. but now i have an alternator problem. When we were taking the starter out we didn't pay very good attention. When we when to put the starter back in there were the three wires that go to it. Then there was an extra black wire hanging there coming from the back of the alternator. It's a thick black wire. We assumed that we knocked it loose from something when we were taking the starter out. We called a guy and he said that it might be a ground wire. I drove my car around town and soon realized that we did something very wrong. Battery light came on. car was sputtering, if i engaged the cluth my rpms would jump to around 3,000 and stay there, then all of my guages dropped, then every once in a while they would spike all the way up. My rpms didnt actually go up, but the guage did, my mph guage went from 0-110 in about a half second.. that scared me .. so i parked my car at a gas station. shut it off and then when i went back to start it, battery was dead. I think that wire that we grounded was supposed to be the wire that charges the battery. Now the thing i dont kno is where that wire would go. it's only long enough to reach a little past the starter. i'm so confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time

Typically you have the (3-wire) plug that plugs into the alternator, then a RED cable that slips over a stud and gets bolted down with a nut. Not sure what your black wire is, but there HAS to be a thick wire off the alternator to charge the battery and run the car. A picture would help a lot, bud.

make sure the battery cable is hooked to the alternator, it might be that black cable LOL I can't remember

hello again. The wire i'm talking about is supposed to be the power wire. I just don't kno where it is supposed to connect... it's only long enough to reach to the starter. and i can't find anywhere on the wire coming from the battery to connect to the alternator. I'm pretty sure it's the one that is supposed to go to the battery. But just to make sure... is there supposed to be ANY wire running from the alternator to the starter? .. i know its a dumb question but i have been told different things by like 10 people... any help is appreciated and thank you for your time

On many cars there is one large terminal post(stud) on the Starter solenoid that is used as a junction, This is the one that is NOT directly connected to the starter. The cable from the Alternator goes to this stud-as does another large cable from the battery-this is how the connection Alternator to Battery is accomplished.

This stud and the large Batt terminal on the Alternator are both Hot(Live) at all times the Battery is connected.

When the Ignition switch is turned to the Start position the small gauge wire on the Starter Solenoid(Relay) (Usually Purple color) supplies +12 volts to the Solenoid which operates and switches the +12 volts from the "Always Hot" stud (With two large cables on it ) directly to the Starter to turn the engine.

This is why the [it's only long enough to reach to the starter.] wire is that long-that's where it goes (On the Stud that DOES NOT have a wire or copper link going into the Starter


Hope this helps


Alont

i think I have this problem..... I got a starter from the junkyard but it has the 3 wires in different spots than I old one. Anyone have pics or something...

my old one has 2 studs and the new one has 3. My old one had the + hooked up to the stud and the - had two wires hooked up to the stud. On the new started I put it just like that but the other wire I gave its own stud. It starts good but wont stay running for more that a minute cause I think the alternator/starter is not hooked up right.