yea fired up the vette yesterday, I get about 5 minutes from home, and i realize my power windows are pretty slow, check the voltmeter, crap its reading 12V. So I pull over check the connections to battery, alternator (4) and turns out the alternator wire (with the rubber boot) had broken right at the crimp. so I drive home, open the crimp, strip the wire, re-crimp, start the car, still low voltage. alt not charging. So I check all my fuses, although i don't think the charging system has a fuse, just a fuseable link. and all the fuses are ok. So I grab my digital multi-meter, start checking points. I've got 12V on the red wire with the boot, 0V on the red wire (Which should have 12V) and 12V on the brown wire, which I understand goes to the dash light for "BATTERY" to indicate low battery, (I guess my bulb is burnt inside). So I take a jumper and I jumper 12V right to the red, still nothing. so I put it away until i get back to my parents and have a look at the haynes manual for the circutry. any ideas? I replaced the alternator last fall so its pretty much brand new. also, i know that I had to bring RPMs up over 1500 RPM once, before the alt would begin operating. I tried a little rev, but did not kick the alt on.
John

 

i've seen brush's (glaze) ??? sprayed contact cleaner on to clean and all good
probly not your case but TTT

 

The red wire is the sensing wire and the brown is the "switch on" wire. You absolutely should be getting a reading on the red wire. Even if that isn't the cause of your current troubles it is a problem.

Running disconnected *may* have damaged something but I'm sure someone more qualified than me will chime in.

Good luck! :cheers:

 

I just went through a charging system problem myself, I found I had corrosion on the socket for my Gen. light bulb, if the alt. sees an "open" circuit, such as your bulb being burned out, it will not allow the gen. to turn on for fear of overcharging the system, might not be a fix for you, but it was for me.

---Chris