355 battery light conundrum

The 355 has the same as the later 348's (with a 12 pin plug)... and it's behind the strut. The 348 old plug seems to be in front of the strut. I'm not sure about the newer 348 plug.

 

F355 plug:

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If you pull the green plug out of the alternator and drop the wire down it shouldn’t be too difficult to work on. You pull back the outer protection tubing to get access to the actual wires.

 

On my car, the thermofit type "outer protection" was very short, then the protection became solid rubber with the wires twisted inside. Something like this:

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It was impossible to gauge how deep to cut into the insulation and the insulation wouldn't peel away easily.

 

oh wow, that is very different to my car. If I remember correctly you don't have the round connector on your alternator?

 

It’s been so long since I looked at it, I’m not sure. It may be a flat plug with the pins in a row. It’s definitely a Nippon Denso. I thought it might have been normal in later cars as the harness didn’t show any signs of splicing or modification. Anyway, the used harness I bought had a round plug, so I thought I’d better fit a new alternator with a round plug instead of messing around with adapters. Less joins, less resistance.

 

Well I finally got the car up in the air to see what I could find. Pulled the 3 wire plug out from the back of the alternator and noticed some electrical tape wrapped around the wires, so removed the tape to see if maybe it was replaced prior or why they were taped. Noticed two of the wire coatings were melted. Got a new plug, and spliced it in, and the battery light hasn’t come back on since!

Just frustrated that the shop I continued to take the car to for fixing the issues either never checked the wires, or just wrapped them and crossed their fingers.

Also upgraded the ground wire to be safe.