My 71 914 has been switched to carbs, dual 34 icts. Anyway, the PO that performed the switch hacked up the wiring to make it work. When I got the car, the alternator had no belt on it, so I've decided that having a working charging system would be nice. So the problem is that there is a big ass red wire coming up from the alternator that is cut, and there is no wire near by that looks like it should join to it. The other three wires run up to the realy board. According to a wiring diagram, that big red wire runs to the starter, and connects to the same terminal as the wire running directly from the battery. Is this correct?

Obviously the PO cut and removed this wire for a reason (there is no lead off of the stater for this wire to connect to anymore), can anything bad happen if I reconnect the wire, put on a belt, and start the car up other than I find out that I need to replace the alternator? I don't really want to start a fire.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Chris

Yes, the big red wire from the alternator goes
to the starter with the large wire on the starter.

I just removed my alternator yesterday and had
to replace that big red wire (it was melted at the
alternator end).
It was not a pleasant job to remove the alternator.
My new one should be in tomorrow night.

To get your wiring back to normal, get a regular alternator harness. That will have the big wire from the alternator directly to the starter. It will also have the wires to the relay board, distributor, oil pressure sensor, and fan (depending on year). That will be the easiest way from what your describing.

Matt

These are the only wires in a 914/4 alterenator harness. All the /4 cars are the same, the /6 cars are different.



These wires are in the ignition harness, not the alternator harness, which also has the coil, aux air reg, back-up lights and yellow starter wire. The ignition harness also has the heater blower motor on the 70-72 cars and an oil temp wire on the 72-only cars.