your car is wired incorrectly, its quite simple, the alternator sees 0V when the car is off and the regulator tries to charge the battery, thus draining the battery. This load is about 1A, hopefully your regulator isn't fried and you can still correct this problem. I can say for a fact that until i figured this one out on my own, 100% of everything i read online about how to do the wiring was WRONG. Please read as EVERY ONLINE WRITEUP IS WRONG.



I have contributed to this site and they now have it correct

http://www.rx7.org/

Yer welcome to do a write up for the FAQ section here. The alternator I ordered is not load sensing, it's just like the s4 alternator so there shouldn't be any ecu wiring necessary, should be a plug in the pigtail and roll with it. Like I said before hopefully I'll get this rolling before I am off on vacation.

what's the easiest way to get to the dash warning light? does the idiot cluster just pull out of there? or maybe a is there a wire that i can tap into below the dash?

The cluster is actually pretty easy to get too, it's only a few screws.

I rearranged the wires in the harness plug in my '86 to fit an 88+ style (darker shaded, not back-lit) idiot cluster while the dash was still in place. There should be lots of space to play with. Just be careful not to break the bezel.



Pry it up from the bottom with a flathead screwdriver (carefully), then remove the two screws holding the cluster in place and pull it out, the harness is all right there.

I have an FD alternator. How would I check to see if ist wired the right or wrong way. I'm sorry if its really easy but i'm a complete newb when it comes to figuring this stuff out if i havent already done it before.

Did you install it or did someone else?

Check to see if you have a volatage drop with the car off.



I just installed my fd alt minutes ago according to digbots directions, works perfectly https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png

Strange though I never had an overvolt problem and I had just soldered the newer plug in place of the old one. It still charged at a reasonable level, never overvolt... But like I mentioned I did have the drain problem after a few weeks.

Previous owner installed it. I don't know about a voltage drop becuase i don't have a voltimeter, BUT when the car gets really low in rpm or when i shut it off all the lights dim significantly.