My 81 is only getting its power from the battery when I take the positive cable off it dies and the battery isnt getting charged but I took the alternator in and had it tested and they said it was good.

 

regulator is sometimes the culprit .. but honestly .. I would take apart the alt. and check the brushes .. I would never trust those "counter test props" as I have seen many fail , and been just fine ..


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put a chevy one wire and be done with it.

 

Alternators fool testers all the time. I would get a new one. Have you had the alt checked with it on the truck running by a "good" shop. Check grounds and connectors on alt

 

Alright brand new battery and alternator but still have the problem. How many wires should be going to the alt? I have 4 the single white one and the three wire plug, is there a ground thats suposed to be connected? Whats a chevy one wire?

 

I had the same problem after i fried some wires. My alternator was externally regulated and i had to replace the regulator and rebuild one of those green fusible link plugs off of the positive battery terminal. I had previously taken it to a decent mechanic and he missed the problem entirely. I got the regulator off a slightly different junk yard truck and it worked fine.

You can switch to the chevy alternators, which are internally regulated and only have one wire to connect. they are really simple and can make life alot easier. I'm not really sure of the details though.