So first post here and hoping someone can help. I had to do some repairs on the passenger side of the engine compartment and there's 3 wires that I can't figure out where they go. I have a 96 Dakota with 5.2L. my alternator won't charge and there's 2 other wires one that's black with orange stripe and 2 blacks. Any pictures of your guy's engine bay on the passenger side could help a lot thank you.

 

First stop should be to the FAQ here; about 40% down there's a link to the factory service manual. The alternator wiring is in there.

What do you have disconnected? What size are they? Do you have a picture?

But ... The only black/orange wire I can find in the wiring diagram goes from the ignition switch back to the PDC for the switched ignition feed.

The two blacks are PROBABLY grounds; however, the feed from the alternator back to the battery is a 6ga black, and does NOT get grounded anywhere!

(The one black/orange I find is on page 8W-10-7, upper left corner, in case you go trawling through it also.)

RwP

 

that's the wire I can't figure out where it goes it's black with orange and all I could find was that it's for ignition switch can't tell if it should go to a ground or somewhere else.

 

That's not the run to the ignition switch, I don't think. For one thing, THAT run is between the ignition switch and the PDC, and would not be over by the alternator.

You may have to trace it to its other end to figure out what it is; it's surely not in the wiring diagram.

But before you sweat that too much - fix your battery terminal. That design terminal, with bare copper hanging out, is just BEGGING to have problems down the road if not right now.

RwP

 

Thanks for the heads up. I've been tracking down a lot of different Gremlins ever since buying the truck off of some young kid that basically ran it into the ground. He also had wired up a lot of random things in the oddest of ways. Thanks for the help I'll figure out what that wire is eventually when it's running and that wire isn't grounded somewhere it doesn't seem to effect anything from what I can tell just looks like it's something factory based on how it's wired.

 

That black/orange wire is a ground wire I have the same year truck so I went outside and took a look for you
hope this help you out
DB

 

Awesome thank you I put it where the other ground wire went and seems like everything is working as it should just need a new alternator now it's just not putting out enough power to keep the battery fully charged.

 

Have the battery tested as well.