kevin11mic

My buddy has an 85 pickup that he got from a guy who “rebuilt it“. When we picked up the truck Three years ago I remember the guy was talking about how he Searched to find an alternator that only needed 1 wire to run. Now said alternator is “bad”. After looking at the alternator I’ve decided it’s an 85 FJ Alternator best I can tell. It has the regulator mounted on the side. And my buddy swears that the only wire that’s ever been hooked up to it is the power wire to the battery. The alternator has a 2 wire plug connector in the back of it one for ignition and one for charge light. My question is how on gods green earth has this guy been driving around without a working alternator for 3 years. And/or how was that alternator ever working without an ignition source. I’m at a loss. He decided the alternator was bad because the truck wouldn’t start the other day so when he got it running I had him check the battery voltage and it wasn’t charging. He tried to pull it out but realized you have to either drain the coolant or pull the power steering pump. I’m his mechanic friend so anything past a few bolts he comes to me. Anyone have any clues here?

kevin11mic

Update: I had him put the alternator back on and hook a hot wire up the the Ignition terminal on the alternator and it workEd. Imagine that. Either the old trigger wire fell off or it never had one and he’s been driving it without an alternator for two years. It doesn’t get drove much so there is a chance it’s lasted this long since he put the new battery in two years ago. Either way. An FJ60 alternator bolts on and works with two wires.

welder7018

every 1st and 2nd gen i get i replace alternator with a Trailgear bracket and chevy 1 wire alternator from summit ,its cheap and gets rid of the toy 35 amp alternator with easy setup just run wire from alternator to battery and your done .only thing that sucks is you have to pull lower radiator hose to install new bracket YMMV but its nice having a 120 amp instead of the 35