I bought my '95 camaro Feb 5th and the guy had told me he had parked it for 3 months and never drove it because he got a good deal on a truck and it was his thing. He told me he would have to jump the car off because it needed a new battery but because it came from Walmart and was still in warranty, the battery would be free. So after jumping it off he told me I could drive it for as long as I wanted before deciding to buy it. I only mention this because he must of really trusted the car for me to take it for a while.

Anyway, when we got it home which was about 35 mile drive, we went on to walmart and got a new battery. I drove the car 4 a month and after a weekend of sitting, it wouldn't crank. Make no noise at all. Well my husband who has very little mechanical background jumped it off to see if it would crank that way and it did. So we assumed the alternator may be bad. He took it off and I had it tested, it was fine. However, i was going to get another one and they told me that one came off a Lumina and was too big for that car. They also told me from the looks of it that the belt needed changed. I had the belt changed about 2 weeks before this happened so we're good there. The problem would be that the plug to plug in the correct one wouldn't fit that same one that came out of it.

I went home and checked to see if the wires had been cut or what the deal was with the plugs and found that small thin red wire wasn't hooked to anything. They told me that I would need to get the big wire changed over to a smaller "thing that goes on the bolt, can't think" because it was smaller than the alternator I brought in. Well my husband tried that but it was too much wire to shove in it so he used the old one. He also wired that small red wire into the new plug that they gave us but that had 4 wires. He told me (guy who sold part) that we only had to hook one of those up.

Anyway, (thanks if you've made it this far). We've charged up the battery on a charger for nearly 2 days and its not working. Took it in to have it checked and they said that it was too low and that if we took it back to walmart, they would replace it for us.

My questions really are: Can the old "too big" alternator have done this to the battery? The guy at the shop said if the plug was missing that the alternator wasn't even plugged up to charge. Is that true? Was that little red wire suppose to be plugged up? I just have no confidence in this car at all and since I had a Z28 as my first car in 1990, I have wanted this car SO BAD. Its real fun to drive not to mention LOUD.

 

Welcome to the forums! If you had your alternator tested and it's ok, then it's not your issue.

It's your battery. Either the battery doesn't have the required amount of cold cranking amps (CCA) the car requires to start after it is cold, or the battery is defective when you bought it. I would definately try another battery.

 

So even though the alternator in it wasn't the correct one it wouldn't have had an impact on this? It was so much bigger that some of it was actually sawed off just to make it fit in there. Also, what is the single red wire for and is that hurting it to be hooked the way I described? I have pics of this by the way because I took them into the alt shop and he told me that the alt wasn't even getting power to function with it hooked like that. I'm just afraid of the car really. I will get battery exchanged today but I'm afraid that its gonna set on fire!

 

OK sounds like you have a simple case of the "I am not sure what is wrong with this car so I am going to cover my a$$ and tell her that this is the wrong part and will mess things up"

Here is the deal. ANY alternator will work in ANY car so long as it will put out the proper amount of amps that the system requires. You can ALWAYS go bigger in amps but not in volts. Since all cars and small trucks run on 12 Volts that is not an issue. A Lumina engine is very similar to the Camaro engine and my even have the same alternator. The mounting brackets could be a little different but the guts will be the same.

I have installed 80's style internall regulated alternators on 60's cars and trucks with no issues, and the 80's Alternator puts out 3X the amount of amps the 60's ones do. I even put a GM CS style alternator in a Mustang because I was tired of replacing regulators all the time (I was drawing more amps then the factory alternator could handle with my stereo).

The little red wire that was hanging free is the exciter wire for the alternator. This wire gets +12V when the ignition is on and that turns the alternator on. If it is not connected the car will run on the battery only. Some alternators use more than one wire so the replacment plugs come with the full plug of wires. Just cut the others off at the base of the plug to clean up the look if you want. If not just make sure they dont short to ground. The exciter wire should be in post "L" as shown in the schematic below.

I hope this helps you get your car running good.

Massey

 

Ok I just need to be sure that exciter wire is hooked to the correct wire going in alt because there are 4 wires. Our other camaro (same year) has just the one going in but its probably a stock fix and hasn't been messed with. Our battery is completely dead though so I need to take it in and see if they will replace it or buy another one. Thanks you have been SO helpful!

 

Well my husband put the exciter wire to the L post on the alternator plug. We went and exchanged the battery. The car started and ran what seemed normal for 30 to 45 seconds and just completely shut off. It wont make a sound now. I never had any problems with this car shutting off at all prior to this. Never had any cranking issues until the battery completely died but we had no clue that the alternator wasn't charging the battery either. So this may be complicated or easy but either way..any ideas?

 

Another piece of info...he told me to get away from car when it cut off so I just asked him why he said that. He informed me he was being "shocked" by the ignition.

 

OK, I had this issue when my remote battery post under the hood had corroded wires and wasn't connecting properly, I had the car shut off on me several times while driving. I replaced the remote battery post and the car was fine. I wonder if one of your ground wires aren't connecting properly. Mine was bad under the driver's seat on the floor.

 

None of this happened until we tried hooking the exciter wire up. I'm wondering if thats why it was unhooked when we bought it. Something not being ground is what I'm thinking too but of course what would I know. It wouldn't crank back but I guess given the circumstance, that may be for safety. I'm sure he will talk to his mechanic buddy at work about it tomorrow but I am almost ready to give up.

 

the old alternator worked and was charging the system for you to drive it that long. If that wire wasn't hooked up, then some other wire had taken it place.

Anyway, don't give up. It is very easy to order a one wire alternator from summit. Forget all the old wires and add a new one.

I think you had a ground issue in the original set up that killed your battery if it sat for a few days. My car will do that. I unhook the battery if I am going to leave it for a week. It isn't the battery I have an optima.

Get the alternator hooked up correctly, then drive it for a while.
If you have to have a shop check the wiring. It seems as though someone changed the wires around or one of them has been damaged.

Once it is fixed, let it sit for a few days and see if it will start. If not it isn't the alternator or the battery it is an issue with something in the car putting a drain on the battery.