Yota4runner

Okay so about amonth ago I came to this board with a problem with my alternator/battery not holding a charge. Well I replaced the alternator and that seemed to make everything peachy....until tonight. Both the Charge ligh and Brake light came on. I lost a bit of power (just enough to make the lights dim and heater slow down) But my radio still worked. The truck will start, the alternator is Brand new like not even 3 weeks old.

What do you guys think? I have thought about replacing the belts. any ideas?

netgodsrdn2

Double check your connections to the alternator. And check that the belt is tight. If they are all tight. I think I'd have the alternator tested to verify that it is charging.

Ron

bike4miles

Check your ground on the alternator. I forgot to ancor down my ground and the exact same thing happend to me.

Ryan1

what they said and your voltage regulator

Ryan

gwhayduke

Did you use a Toy alternator or a rebuilt one from a retail auto parts store? Several of us here have had defective "rebuilt" alternators.

jimbo74

im in the same boat with thinking wise about that... as soon as i read your post, you mentioned NEW alternator not even 3 weeks old, I immediately thought, bad NEW alternator, its very common with any of the reman alternaotrs that are sold through autochain stores to be new/reman and still be defective...

Yota4runner

I have no idea if it was rebuilt or not, to be honest. I bought it from Crappy tire. It was made by Champion. So I'm not sure. I'll look into it. I'm gonna run the volt test today. I replaced the wires and such on the back last night as one corroded off right in my hand.

We'll see what happens I guess.

roger

See if there's a warranty on the alt. Many autoparts stores will replace it for free. I went through 3 reman'd alts once before I got a good one.

Otherwise, perhaps you have a slow current draw somewhere? Could be a royal PITA to track that down....

phorunninduke

voltage regulator

make sure the connections are good

Yota4runner

Would my voltage regulator not be built right into my alternator?

Yota4runner

Okay so heres the latest update on this saga.

I changed the battery out, because it seemed I wasn't getting any power from it. I had a spare and dropped it in, and the Truck fired right up (and has done so 4 or 5 times now) So then I pulled out the Multimeter and slapped it on the Alternator and and it is outputting about 17V so thats obviously not the problem. Then I went to the battery and put it on it, and its only reading about 12 or so. Which brings me to my conclusion that I have a problem somewhere in the charging circuit.

Now, here is my dilema.I have no idea where to begin, anyone have any ideas? I have enough power at the moment to start the truck and it runs great. I just don't have any day time running lights, my wipers and heater are a tad sluggish. Other then that though Its all good. (Aside from my stupid dash lights being on) any ideas?

Yota4runner

Nobody has any ideas? I'm at a standstill at the moment

superjoe83

17 volts is a bit high, check your charge/alt fuse, it may be blown, if not, then your charge wire probably has a break in it

Yota4runner

So it turns out I had a few things wrong. One was a wire on the back of the alternator was repaired at some point and wasnt done properly. Two was that a wire running into the cab that connects to god knows what popped an ignition fuse.(at least thats what I think he said ) And the alternator somehow fried itself. Took it back to Canadian Tire, they gave me a new one for nothing.

I had it installed and fixed by the local Import Car shop. My dad uses them they do good work. So hears to hoping it will now behave itself.