I think my alternator is possessed. If you have an alternative solution I would love to hear it.

1988 Volvo 244, non-turbo. 290k miles.

I'm the third owner of the car, had it for five years now. I replaced the battery once and starter once, but not the alternator until recently. A few weeks back the nut on the bolt connecting the alternator to the bracket came off and the alternator just slipped off the belts. In doing so, the excitor wire was torn off in the process. I ended up getting a rebuilt alternator from IPD and then put everything back together. But it took weeks for the alternator to ship.

In the mean time, I drove for a couple weeks with a wire going from the old alternator excitor terminal straight to a power on spade connector, which bypassed the ignition. This mean I had to start the car, pop the hood, connect the spade connector to the terminal, shut the hood and drive. At some point the alternator failed and I parked the car for a week until the new one came in.

New alternator comes in. I install it, and find the end of the excitor wite. There was enough slack on the excitor wire to just put a new ring connector on.

This works for about a week. My ring connector on the excitor wire broke off again, and the alternator stopped working. So I do a better job crimping a new ring connector, and it doesn't work. No battery light coming on.

So I go back to the redneck fix of bypassing the ignition and just running a straight wire to a power on spade connector. This time it doesn't work. The new rebuilt alternator won't turn on. Even if I directly connected the positive battery terminal to the excitor terminal.

Now there is a spade connector on the alternator, and because why not, I tried to hook the excitor wire to that. That was weird. The battery light is on with no key in the ignition, unless I turn the key to to the number two position, then the battery light goes off.
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Also, if I disconnect the excitor wire from the alternator, then put the multimeter probes in the ring connector and the positive terminal of the battery, with the key at the number 2 position, I read 12 volts. Which tells me the wire is good, the battery bulb is good, the ignition good, and the fuse is good. So what's bad?

 

What's the condition of the engine wiring harness where it is plugged into the main harness - in the center of the engine compartment at the back to the head. Usually that insulation fails and those wires can short together.

Individual wires can be run in place of those shredded ones. It's common to run (spliced in) wires for the oil light, alternator light and temp sensor.

 

Wiring looks good. With the excitor wire disconnected, the key on, and using the multimeter to make a circuit between the alternator and the excitor cable, I am showing 9 v.

I am quite certain the brand new, never used, remanufactured alternator from IPD failed after a week.