OleKingCole

So on my drive home this morning I had 3 warning lights turn on the parking brake, oil, and engine light I think that's right then the anti lock light came on as the rpm needle dropped to 0. While I was pulling over I noticed it was able to make any real speed then it just died. The lights inside still work but when attempting to turn the engine over nothing happens. The alternator was recently replaced about 3 months ago so I'm thinking it may be something else or it was fried somehow. It did just start getting really cold here not sure if that matters. Any ideas, suggestions or tips?

TNRabbit

Sounds like you may have broken the alternator belt. Did you check under the hood.

scope103

If the alternator is not charging, you'll end up with a battery so weak it can't keep the engine running. It will definitely make no sound on the starter. But it could still have enough juice to turn on the itsy-bitsy lights inside.

Put your voltmeter on the battery; if you're reading less than 12volts it's probably discharged. You could pull the battery and hook it to a charger for awhile to recharge it. If that does the trick, put your voltmeter back on the battery while it's running. If you get less than 14v (the spec is 14-15) your alternator is not charging.

OleKingCole

Yeah the alternator belt is still attached.

I'll have to locate a battery charger and get a volt meter.
I can't recall how old the battery is either. It seems strange the alternator would crap out after a few months if its the issue.

TNRabbit

If it's a "lifetime warranty" alt. from Autozone or Advance, there's every possibility it would crap out after a few months. Chinese piece of crap.

z31freakify

have you checked your alt fuse under the hood on the passenger side fuse box?

OleKingCole

Yeah it should have a warranty. I did check the fuses and everything looks in order. So far I am leaning towards the alternator crapped out or a faulty battery cable.
A buddy of mine hooked a charger up to the battery and charged it for maybe a minute then I was able to start it with the charger attached and it ran fine until we switched the charger off. Once the charger was turned off it ran for about a minute the died.
Any thoughts on what else I should be looking at?

scope103

IF your battery was that discharged, charging it for a minute (or even 10) won't get it charged enough to run the truck by itself. And the fact you could start the truck from a charger suggests it is not the battery cable.

But both you and I are just guessing now. You might learn something if you could borrow the charger for 6 hours. But if you really want to work on your own truck, you need a multimeter. You don't need a fancy RMS meter. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/FLU...EK9?Pid=search This one will work just fine: http://www.harborfreight.com/7-funct...ter-98025.html

OleKingCole

Just to update I replaced the alternator and that seemed to fix everything. Thanks for all the help guys.