- Joined
- Apr 24, 2020
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- Pittsford, NY
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- My all time favorite vehicle is our 1969 Shelby GT500
You re correct, the field needs current flowing through its wiring/coils inside the alternator to work. The reason for pulling the field terminal is to see if the alternator continue to put out voltage higher than battery voltage. If it does it means there is a short somewhere inside the alternator that is allowing the field circuit to be getting current when it ought not be getting current. Just one of several diagnostic approaches to determining where the field voltage is coming from.Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't the alternator require field excitation to generate voltage? In other words, with the field disconnected, there would be no output?
Billw69, you mentioned that you have another alternator on hand and you were going to try it. How did that work out?