Attn: people who've fixed alternator problems

[ajevenson]

I recently had problems with my voltage regulator. After driving for about an hour my alternator guage would be reading '18'. I changed the voltage regulator and this worked for about two weeks. Now its back to its old self again. In some other posts there was mention that this problem could be atttributed to a bad ground somewhere.

Has anyone out there with this problem been able to find which bad ground this could be? Right now the only way I can drive on long trips is to stop every hour and a half, shut the engine off, turn my stereo as loud as it goes, leave the lights on and drain the battery for 20 minutes.

 

[Doug]

In my opinion the best thing for you to do would to be buy a chilton manual and buy decent multimeter that measures resistance. Use the multimeter to check the ground you might just have a loose ground or a bad wire.

 

[ajevenson]

Ya I've already got a multimeter, just hopin that there was an easy answer. Electrical problems are usually not very cut and dried...

 

[MattHarrell]

Well if you think it's a ground then take that multimeter out there and measure the resistance between the engine / frame, engine / battery negative, frame / battery negative. I forget what the number should be (but I think I posted it in a previous posting) but I'm thinking only a couple milliohms. No matter what, if it's different from one of the places to the other by a decent amount then you definitely have some kind of ground problem.

In my case when I had a similiar problem I just replaced the whole alternator and it's been fine for the past six months.

 

[ajevenson]

I was originally gonna buy a new alternator until I saw the price tag, $315!!! I decided to spring for the voltage regulator rebuild kit instead since it only cost $60.

 

[MattHarrell]

My mechanic did mine since I just it right at the same time as a deer versus explorer accident. I'll swear my whole alternator (and regulator) was only about $150. I don't have the receipt around here right now but it wasn't nearly that high

 

[Doug]

Try getting an alternator from a junkyard, thats what Id do.

 

[ajevenson]

To provide an update. The rising guage problem seems to have fixed itself and the only thing that I can attribute it to is the warmer weather. I was driving before in -10 to -20C weather and the guage would red-line after 30 minutes of driving. Now that it is consistently above 0C the guage reads right on 'L' after a three hour drive. I'll have to investigate this again once the Fall comes.