Just started my SR for the first time, need a little help

[wutangben]

Well after many stupid delays, I was able to start my coupe with an S13 blacktop motor in it. I have a couple issues that hopefully you guys can help me with.

1. the alternator. for some reason, when the alternator is connected, if i put the negative and positive cables on the battery terminals, they start sparking/smoking . I can't figure out what's wrong... The only way I found to fix the problem was I disconnected the bigger of the two wires going to the alternator (not the plug). for some reason it's fine when that bigger wire is off. anyone have any idea why this might be? also, when i shut off my car and take the keys out, some of the lights on my cluster stay on (like the BRAKE light etc).

2. the car won't idle, I have to hold the gas down a little to keep it running. right now I don't have an exhaust on the car (it's coming monday/tuesday) so I couldn't mess with it too much because I was waking up the entire neighborhood. I assume it's either a boost leak, or my BOV needs to be adjusted. I have an old school HKS BOV, does anybody know how to adjust these things?

Well, that's all for now... I'm sure I will have more questions throughout the week. Any comments you guys can make will help.

Thanks,
Ben

[F3600]

Well my ca18 alternator was shot and 2 dash light was lit when the car was shut .. got it rebuilted and after that everything was fine. I did some ground on the engine too .. so its a ground issue or a bad alternator


good luck
for the idle ... be sure the car timing is fine..check your air regulator for vacuum leak

[timmybgood]

you don't have the wires on the alt. backwards do you?

[fliprayzin240sx]

1. I went tru the same thing before, your alternator is shot basically. I replaced mine and it was good from there. Mine didnt spark, i just kept blowing my damn 100 amp main engine fuse on my s14.

2. Could be timing, did you make sure your timings at 15 degrees?

[the head]

idle is most likely a boost leak there are many styles of HKS BOV so you may need to post a picture to get help on how to adjust it otherwise get some soapy water in a spray bottle and spray all of your pipe connections then look for bubbles that will help you find your boost leak

[wutangben]

the car idles now, i pretty much tightended everything, and fixed this one vacuum hose that was kinked. the car still runs like shit... I think it might have to do with the alternator... a friend of mine's car was just running like absolute shit and it turned out one of his alternator wires was screwed up and now it runs fine...

so I guess i'm really just trying to figure out what could possible be wrong with my alternator. the motor came from a friend (who had the engine running on his car for a while) so I know that the alternator was good... does anyone have any ideas or maybe some things I can try to figrue out what the problem is?

Thanks,
Ben

[Muzzy]

i know this doesnt help....but..same shit happened to me(sparking)...we left it alone overnite and the next day it was fine...idk y


oh hey...runs like crap...coil pack???

[wutangben]

Ok, I don't know why it took me so long to do this, but I started pulling injector clips to see if it would make a difference and I found out I'm running on 2 cylinders. I have the q45 ignitor that was wired up by touge factory, but I have a feeling it's wrong.

[wutangben]

problem fixed, because the alternator wasn't hooked up right, it was only running on 2 cylinders. how weird, everything is good now though :)

thanks for the help