I have a 99 silverado that I put a 1976 454 BB in. I have most everything wired, but I can't figure out the alternator. I have a no charge situation. I had the alternator bench tested and it's fine. I ran a 4 gauge wire from the post on my alternator directly back to the battery. That is all I can figure out. I don't know where the two pigtails go, or how to wire in the gauge.

The alternator needs two wires to function. One wire to charge the battery and one to tell it to charge. On the plug for mine the red wire told it to charge. If you run direct power into this wire you will blow the alternator. After some research I found that the signal wire needs a 560 ohm resistor inline. I went to radio shack and they didn't have a 560 ohm, but a 510 ohm. i soldered the 510 ohm resistor inline to the red wire on the plug, and ran that wire to the power wire for the coil. Works great. hope this helps.

I'm still a little confused. The wire on the post goes straight to the battery. Then, the red pigtail goes to the coil on the starter and the white pigtail goes to the voltmeter?

No.
Bat terminal to the bat.
Terminal 1 to the idiot light.
Terminal 2 with a short loop gets attached to the bat terminal.

Assuming your using the '74 alternator.

Alex.

Hooked it up and worked perfect, After I put in the working alternator. Pretty simple for such a big headache.

No.
Bat terminal to the bat.
Terminal 1 to the idiot light.
Terminal 2 with a short loop gets attached to the bat terminal.

Assuming your using the '74 alternator.

Alex.

Talk about bringing a thread back from the dead. Ive been searching around on threads here and on other forums about alternator wiring. I just wanted to clear up a few questions first off will the jumper wire from #2 to the battery post fry the alt and second what the hell is an idiot light and do I need it. The reason I ask is my wiring is a mess so I want to simplify it to the bare essentials. After searching my thoughts are: run a wire from the + batt. post to the batt. post on the alt. run a jumper wire from the #2 terminal to the batt. post on the alt. .... will that work or will it result in a big ball of flames?