my car has the factory gauges- there is no idiot light for the charging system at all. i don't think the gauge has ever worked since i swapped over from idiot lights in 2005, but the car has always charged up until today.
alternator is a CS144 out of a '92 Caprice.
there is power to both terminals on the back of the stock amp gauge, but there is no power getting to the alt thru the plug to power it up. checked the trigger wire from the alt plug to the firewall connector and it has no resistance at all.
is there something i'm missing here? it's been hooked up like this since 2005, and as of a week ago the voltage was around 14 volts with the car running. today, i drove the car up to NAPA, and was greeting with a "click click click" when i came out of the store. got a jump start and drove it the 5 blocks home and put the multimeter on it and the battery was at 11.5 volts with it running, which went up to 12.5 when i shut the car off.

What kind of car is this? Power through the idiot light and/or resistor fires up the alt in a non-guage Chevelle, not sure what fires it up with gage dash. I thought the amp gage was just connected across the horn relay and junction block, which is why it should have power on both terminals. Don't believe the gage is involved in turning on the alt. AutoZone has wiring diagrams online, might help.

EDIT: Kind of car is right there in the title of the post. :clonk:

where would a resister be? would it be a part of the printed circuit board, or would it be somewhere inline between the ignition switch and alternator? i know there isn't anything like that under the hood- just a wire from the bulkhead connector to the alt.

i might just wire it up so that the "fasten seatbelt" bulb acts as the energizing circuit.

Check your fuses. Caprice must have been a police or taxi option alt to be a CS144.

Check your fuses. Caprice must have been a police or taxi option alt to be a CS144.
yup- 92 Caprice 9C1. got the whole serp setup on there, it's been on since '05.
all fuses are good- there just isn't a trigger signal getting to the alt. gonna dig into the dash today and see if i can't find the resister.

figured it out.. pinched wire by the ignition switch. fixed that, and it still didn't charge. swapped voltage regulators with a "donor" alt i had laying on the shelf, and it's all good now.