91 5.0 Alternator Not Charging - Checked Most Obvious

This is the b/o wire that runs to the solenoid. Doesn't look good does it?

So.. I fixed it. I am lead to believe that when whoever decided to put plastic butts on top of the wires rather than soldering them, caused the problem. I will have to go through and take some readings I guess to make sure there are no other issues. Thank you all for your help, I greatly appreciate it. 2 days of work for a novice, but I figured it out!

Jrichker, I most certainly couldn't have done this without you, so thank you a ton. Also the other guys in the beginning of the thread (too tired to look), thanks for all your help as well. Here are some things I will pass along. Make sure to follow the steps posted, one at a time from the beginning. This really made things easier, and gets you acquainted with what you are going up against.

What I don't quite understand is why someone put plastic connectors attaching the 18 awg fusible link + b/o wire to the 14 awg fusible link. The problem was that the plastic melted and created 3K ohms worth of resistance. Once I cleaned everything up, I soldered all three together and covered with heat shrink. My resistance dropped to .1 ohms I believe.I will say, I only replaced the 14 awg fusible ink. The existing 18 awg fusible link connected to the w/y wire from the voltage regulator tested good for continuity, but did have some stretch to it. I was going to replace this also, but no one in town had 18 awg fusible link.

The unanswered question for me is, why did the existing owner add the plastic butt connector to begin with? I am hoping everything else is alright, but I will have to do some digging and check some connections. It seems like an overwhelming and daunting task since there are just so many wires and anything can cause a problem if not properly connected/grounded. I have some ideas - - there was an alarm installed, and there are still remnants of it. I will have to make sure nothing is shorting out or causing unnecessary resistance. There is an aftermarket CD player that I've always assumed was hooked up properly - nothing that would draw too much current, just a CD player and aftermarket OEM size speakers.

If you have electrical problems, get familiar with a DMM, and the fundamentals of how current travels, testing for resistance and continuity, etc. When you make a new [soldered if possible] connection, test it. Do one thing at a time. I think that was what worked for me. It took me 10 times longer than it would have taken someone who has done this a few times, but before I cranked the engine, I verified schematics over and over, checked connections, etc.

Thanks again everyone for your help. I will say that I don't visit the site too often - usually when I have problems, but I may start popping in more often to see if I can share some lessons learned.

From start to finish, ~5 breaks to stop to drive to the store to buy something else I needed, I put about 2 full 12 hour days into this. Keep in mind, I bought an alternator, installed, removed, re-installed the OEM, bought a new battery, tested the OEM alternator at the parts store, tested the new battery with the old alternator at a different parts store.. So lots of other miscellaneous stuff, but I was in the garage for a solid 12 hours.

--Shawn