Replacing the alternator on my dad's Grasshopper 721D. Both factory and new wires are the same color with no markings, does anyone know if it makes any different which goes to which?
Help with new alternator wiring small Kubota diesel
- Thread starter TJ Starting
- Start date
If it’s truly an alternator (not a DC generator), it produces AC current, and that switches polarity many times per second, so it doesn’t matter how you connect them - either will work.
OP
Generators put out a constant current (regardless of load), and they can be DC or AC generators. Alternators put out current required by the load and are always AC. Generators were pretty much replaced by alternators on most vehicles in the 70s or so. The key is whether it's DC or AC. DC has a designated positive and negative, but AC doesn't because polarity alternates constantly. So, if it's an alternator or an AC generator, you don't worry about which is which, but if it's a DC generator, you do.
If it mattered they would have different colors or markings.
