So I'm trying to impress the boss, long story short I need to fix our 2013 cat 2.2L. It's not charging, the battery is fine, connections on batt and alternator are fine, accessory belt is tensioned. Fires up great, but charging light doesn't go out and s 11.5v at the batt and the same at the alt. Now if I hit the field wire with 12v it starts charging. My question is where does the field wire go? Is it a relay? Fuses are good btw. The field wire only gets voltage for a second right? Were do those magic pixies come from??? Tomorrow I'm going to check all connections on the back of the ignition. Thanks.
The voltage regulator is bad and needs to be replaced. Find a starter, generator repair shop and have if fixed for under $50 (probably $30), or buy another alternator
So what I thought was the field wire goes to the tach. Oops but none the less it worked so with a internally regulated alt, the regulator powers the field wire/tach signal, and doesn't need to get any power to alt other then the big 12v wire that goes to batt??
Correct