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Alternator won't charge battery with Holley sniper

md73Cuda

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Hi all, I have a 73 Cuda and just installed a Holley sniper system. If you know this system, you know that you need a clean 12 volt source on key. So, as per many recommendations, I used the blue and brown wire on the steering column. I cut them and ran them to a relay and the car runs great (see photo below)... But the alternator won't charge the battery. The alternator and volt regulator tested good. I think it's because I cut the blue wire... ???

Can I tap back into the blue wire and jump it back to where I made the cut, while still feeding the relay??? In other words, I need the blue wire to feed the relay for EFI and tap back into original harness. Will this back feed noise into EFI? And I think with this system, I don't need to do anything more with the brown wire because there is no ballast resistor. You can see below where I cut the blue and brown wires leading into plastic connector. Or do I have a different problem all together? Thanks!!
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rklein71

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I have the Sniper as well with the hyper spark distributor and coil. I bypassed the ballast resistor by soldering a wire on the backside between the ballast posts which gives 12 volts to the coil wire at all times. The coil wire is not needed with the system. I used the coil wire to power the Sniper. No issues and the charging system was not affected.
 

moparroy

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Yes the blue run wire also "feeds" the regulator - depending where you cut it - looks like you cut it at the fuse box - you probably disconnected the regulator. Actually looking again it seems you cut it off at the steering column so yes then you disconnected the regulator - I would tap it rather than cut it. That is what I am planning to do - looking to add a sniper and hyperspark once I get the car together and running. I was wondering if the blue and brown should be diode isolated but not sure its necessary - jumpering the ballast basically connects them together...
 

72RoadRunnerGTX

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I run the Sniper with a HyperSpark with an MSD on one of my cars. No relays, no diodes, just connect the blue (ignition1) and brown (ballast by-pass) together for ignition sense. No issues whatsoever. If you want your charging system to function, restore the blue wire and tap off of it.
 

Adam

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I believe you can run a fat wire, with a fusible link, from the alternator output stud directly to the battery positive terminal. This is commonly done when bypassing the ammeter. I do not know if the Sniper system regulates the charging thru the ecm. If not, then it should work.
 

72RoadRunnerGTX

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No, the Sniper has nothing to do with the charging system and by-passing the charge circuit output path will not restore the charging system function in this case. The issue is the ignition1 power supply to the engine harness was cut at the ignition switch Molex to power a relay for the ignition sense leads for the Sniper/Hyperspark. This removes power from the voltage regulator, field circuit of the alternator, and anything else powered from the ignition1 circuit in the engine harness.
 

Adam

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On some cars the pcm handles the job of the voltage regulator, I do not know jack about the Sniper system ie, whether it has a pcm, computer, etc. And I believe what you have laid out is the proper way to wire it. Thanks for the clarification.
 

AUSTA

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Yes you need the blue to excite the Alternator i use the Hyper spark module Coil & MSD dual sync as it was already there.
When you join the blue & brown together i found when turning the key between run & start there is a brief moment where there is no power .
This doesn't appear to be a problem with the sniper but with the Fitech i found the brief off period when turning the key causes the FI to redo a start condition adding an extra shot of fuel .
 

md73Cuda

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Yes the blue run wire also "feeds" the regulator - depending where you cut it - looks like you cut it at the fuse box - you probably disconnected the regulator. Actually looking again it seems you cut it off at the steering column so yes then you disconnected the regulator - I would tap it rather than cut it. That is what I am planning to do - looking to add a sniper and hyperspark once I get the car together and running. I was wondering if the blue and brown should be diode isolated but not sure its necessary - jumpering the ballast basically connects them together...
I didn't use a diode with the relay, not sure if you'd need it with the ballast method.
 
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