Alternator wiring & engine breaker question

Just noticed that my alternator output wire was hooked up to the starter solenoid, and not to the engine breaker - see below.



I'm a novice to these things, so I was wondering about the following:

1. Am I right that the engine breaker protects everything other than the starting circuit? So every wire other than the thick battery cables going from the battery to the solenoid, and from the solenoid to the starter, is protected (including the wires from the breaker to the solenoid and from the ignition/neutral safety switch to the solenoid)?

2. The way my alternator is hooked up currently means my alternator output wire is not being protected by the engine breaker? I'm assuming there is a reason why the wiring diagram shows the output wire should be hooked up to the 'safe'(?) side of the breaker, and not directly to the alternator.

Thanks for the help and guidance!

1. No
2. Yes, but no.

To understand what the breaker protects (in the stock scheme or otherwise) you need to know the direction(s) of current flow. The battery and the alternator are both power sources.

In the stock scheme, there is no protection (from the main breaker) between the alt and the 20a ignition breaker in the dash. The wire is sized such that it can handle the full rated load of the alt.

In your modified scheme, the charging circuit (alt to batt) is not protected. The dash feed is. So long as your output wire on the alt (to the solenoid) is rated above the output of the alt, that’s ok.

Wilhelm Hertzog wrote: I'm not sure what size it is. I can't find any marks or stamps on the alternator housing to indicate what manufacturer/model/capacity it is (pictures below). Where should I look? Or can I just measure output with a multimeter/VOM?

Anyone?

No one is going to be able to tell you the rated putout from the information provided.

Maybe you can tell us what you’re tying to accomplish and we can try and point you in the right direction.