So recently while driving my dash lights have have been coming on,the battery gauge will max out to 18. Heater will max out and rpm will drop about 1000. Yesterday The dash lights came on and now they are staying on. I stopped to check alternator connection's and noticed that the battery sounded like it was boiling!! i;m assuming that the battery is over charging due to an alternator problem. Please help

 

Sounds like the alternator is full fielding either due to a bad battery or a bad voltage regulator inside the alternator. It is possible for batteries to internally short which will cause them to buldge, in either case I would take care of it before you have a battery that blows up.

 

Just weird cause the battery is 2 weeks old and it did it on the old battery, so it must be bad regulator, should i take the alt in to have it tested ot just put in a new regulator? thanks for the help!!!!

 

Your choice, if you have a second vehicle I would take it off and bring it in for testing, usually free or cheap to get it tested. Otherwise I would buy a new regulator and put it in myself. I agree it does sound like the regulator is letting it overcharge.

 

http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b.../3generato.pdf

FYI... a link to the FSM

 

Does anyone know if overcharging will keep a truck from running, i was told that it could cause sensors and stuff to go crazy, and that that was the cause of my truck not starting

 

depends - your electronics run on 12-14v not 20. your batt can over heat as well (explode). also if the rectifier goes bad it can really mess stuff up, tho usually it just stops charging. if you are over charging and have to get some where unplug the alt and watch the gauge, re plug for a bit to charge again and so forth. dont recommend but leaving a rig sucks. ive made it out of a jam doing this and didnt fry anything.

!! my overcharge prob ended up being something was stuck in the brush, keeping the contact fickle. should have just taken apart on the trail, hindsight.