This weekend when we were on a trip to VT, our 1991 940SE wagon died while driving (first time it's ever failed us). It had all the symptoms of a failed alternator, ie everything went dark and we coasted to a stop. I swapped in a fresh battery and was able to drive it no problem the few miles to where we were staying. I managed to get a Bosch reman from the local NAPA and popped it in. I put the original battery back in and started it up. After idling a couple of minutes, it died again. So, my questions are: will a bad battery cause it to die when it's already running? (I wouldn't think so)

Also, the replacement alternator while a Bosch (part # 0 123 500 005) wasn't completely identical to the original--no fan and no separate post on the back for the blue ground wire that attaches to the throttle body mount. I assumed that it was grounded in some other way and left the blue wire loose. Could that be a problem?

I thought I didn't have a DVOM with me (though I did) so I didn't check the output.


Thanks,
Bill