Alternators

["Neff, Matthew John - MBA" <NEFMJ124@domain.elided>]

Greetings, Binders

All of this talk about alternators has got me wondering...
About 7 or 8 months ago, my scout II developed a short.  My dad and I
(neither competent with the electricals) thought we'd traced the short to
one of the wires going to the alternator, not the heavy gauge wire from the
battery, one of the two wires (green and brown, this was the green one) that
plug in right next to each other on the top of the case. So, I unpluged it
to see what would happen.  No more short.  So, I've left the wire unattached
all of this time and I'm starting to wonder if this is really wise.  The
only symptom I've seen is the rpms required to 'spike' the alternator enough
to start charging have increased, so much so that I replaced the pulley with
a smaller one to mitigate the problem (which has helped quite a bit)

So, my question is, where does that wire go, and how risky is running it
like I've got it?
This one's had me stumped for a while, so Thanks a bunch in advance.

Matt Neff
Corvallis, OR

GO BEAVS!