Cascadia alternator - what does this little wire do?

That's my understanding it's the sense wire. So the it can tell how full or low the batteries are and adjust power output as needed. Some truck have them and some don't

 

I had S60 in a 2000 Volvo truck it had this weird electrical thing. The engine RPMs would jump up and down with the turn signal. Nobody could figure out what it was. They called Detroit Diesel main office or something. It was the ground cable to the started. It was a little dirty under the wire were it bolted to starter. It fixed the problem.

 

If thats true no wonder he took it off.

I would want my alternator full output all the time.

 

I thought the idea behind behind the wire was to help the batteries last longer. Kinda of just slow charge most days. Then if they get low you get more power and it help the alternator last longer because it was not going wide open all the time.

 

In our time its 45 minutes to drop a new alternator in with basic tools. We had a 18 year old mechanic at the state line 76 do it at 4 am saturday morning under very extreme time constraints against that particularly hot load. That alternator lasted a year until I turned that truck in. So he did a good job.

 

What does that have to do with the wire?
No one asked how long it took a mechanic to put in an alternator. And 45min for an alternator is milking the clock by about 20min.

 

Here is a little info on the sensor wire. You can Google it also. It basically helps the alternator know how much voltages the batteries are getting after all the cables so It can put out more or less power to the batteries as needed.

What are Remote Sense Alternators | Delco Remy

 

A bit of mis-information in this thread.

From the looks of it, you have a DR 36SI and nothing is hooked up.

Yout want your sense connected in order to NOT over charge the batteries. Nominal voltage should be no higher than 14.2 volts. Makes sense that you had to replace all the batteries because you were running at 14.82 volts. Contrary to popular belief, alternators are not made to charge completely dead batteries. They're certainly able to do it in some cases, but it puts unnecessary strain on the system and can eventually ruin your diode trio. It's hard on the system.




You say you have a wiring problem and you posted in the Freightliner section. I can look up information for you with the last 6 of your vin and possibly help with wiring that you are inquiring about.