Luvmeye22re

It seems to be an intermittent thing the past 3 days. I have done some research and it all points towards the 80 amp fuse or the alternator which I can see because my alt appears to have been in the truck for a long time, might even be original. The weird part is that when the truck is at a higher RPM (4000k or so) they all come off and sometimes they don't come on at all and I can drive a good 50 miles without seeing them once. Sometimes when I rev it up to 4000k they will turn off and not come back on, sometimes they come back on right when I shift and the rpms drop. I have also had some sort of starter problem where sometimes my starter will act like the battery is almost dead but if I bang it with a hammer it will perk right back up. I haven't had a problem with the starter for a week and my warning lights on the dash have only been popping up for the past 3 days. My truck has not died and the headlights don't dim or anything like that. Any thoughts? Should I just quit messing around and replace the old alt and starter? Could any of these problems be related to my recent 5 speed swap?

abecedarian

let's start by saying starter issues and charging system issues are sometimes not caused by the same thing, but can also be caused by the same problem. You could have a perfectly well charged battery and have starter issues, and you could also just as well have battery in perfect condition which the charging system cannot keep charged.

so, let's separate those for the moment....

considering the alternator output is rpm related, I'll say you have a likely culprit right there, between battery and ground wiring. and you say you just did a 5sp swap, so grounds again come into play.

Hayes

your alternator is bad... That is what the combination of lights means. If you are having trouble starting the truck, it's because the battery isn't holding enough of a charge to turn the starter.

abecedarian

okay, I'll give you that the dash lights point towards a bad alternator/regulator... but the problem goes away after driving a while...
... and the truck just had a swap from auto to 5sp.

Any thought on that?

Luvmeye22re

Could the problem be if my positive battery terminal was touching the hood? My mechanic put new ones on there and it has a tall wingnut and it looks like its been hitting the hood off and on. Ill try running it with the hood up and see if there is any difference. Nope that didn't do it nevermind.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

That would definetly cause a problem. The positive side of the battery would then be arcing/shorting against the hood.

Luvmeye22re

Well I replaced the wingnut with a regular nut and nothings touching the hood anymore. I don't think that was the problem but I did it anyway. I pulled my alternator (the plug came out way too easy) and went to have it tested at checker and they said that my original Toyota alternator was doing better than their brand new one lol. I went back to my work and looked in the plug and the inside of it was full of a brown chunky substance so I blasted it with about 1/3 of a can of electrical cleaner and realized that the o-ring in side of it was really worn out and wasn't allowing the plug to go into the alternator completely. Turned out to be an easy fix.