my 90 hatch is not charging the battery. i went to advanced the battery and the alternator are fine but i still cant get a charge. i cleaned the terminals and the connections on the alternator and the ground re to the battery. i looked in my Haynes manual and it says something about an inline fuse. where is that located? has any1 had a problem with that before? is it an easy fix or a pain in the ***?

 

the alternator has a wire that goes to the fuse box under hood, its a big square fuse that has a philp head screw on each end, also have you had you battery tested?

 

The fuses are all in the fuse box.

Does the battery light on the dashboard come on? Is the alternator belt intact?

Measure the voltage at the battery with the engine running. It should be about 14 volts. That's how you tell if the battery is being charged.

 

sorry i forgot to post that teh fuses under the dash and under the hood all look to be fine. i took the car to advanced auto yesterday right after i noticed my battery light was on. they hooked the lil computer to it and said everything was fine. and that there was a connection problem. i replaced the belt probably a year ago and its good and tight. i cleaned all the connections i could find. my Haynes manual says there's a inline fuse in the wiring harness itself. i haven't been able to check that yet. not 100% sure where to look for it.

 

You really need to remove the alternator from the car and test it separately before you can say for sure that the alternator is OK and something else is wrong. A very common cause for not charging with the light on is a bad alternator.

There's no inline fuse that I'm aware of. I had my '91 all apart to replace the engine and didn't see any. You should have battery voltage all the time on the big wire on the back of the alternator. This shows that the circuit from the alternator to the battery through the big white wires and the fuse box is complete. Also you should have 12 volts on the "I" wire, which I think is yellow and black, in the plug on the back of the alternator with the key on. If you don't get that, check the fuses under the dash.

If those check out I would suggest taking the alternator out and having it tested separately at Advance. Before removing the alternator, disconnect the battery. If you touch ground with the big wire and the battery is still connected, the fuse will blow. Take the bolts out and work the alternator over to the right side of the car and you should be able to lift it out through the gap near the starter.