well.. i posted a while with a video of my voltage dropping oddly when driving with my headlight on...

tonight, on my way to WV my voltage gauge starting dropping and my engine was loosing a lot of power. when the voltage was up i had plenty of power. i pulled over and the exhaust manifold was glowing red hot. i turned around to come home... made it about 5 miles and the 4 runner died. i had light and a little bit of starter... but the gauges went dead (lights still worked) but the gauges wouldnt read anything. it wont start. it cranked a few times and that was it.

simple dead alternator? or something worse? could the alternator have put enough drag on the engine and that i was throttling more and thats what got the exhaust manifold red hot? maybe the weak spark from a dieing alternator? it never ran poorly. just a little underpowered, and when i turned around to come back after letting things cool down it was fine... then my head lights turned off, so i flipped the brights on and off and the engine died. i have no cat, and a high flow muffle... there is no clog in the exhaust. there is a small exhaust leak in the pipe just below the down pipe. im going to wrap it up to make sure no air is getting in before the o2.

im in trenton/middletown ohio area.... any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Looks like you have a bad alternator....sorry, I'm in CA.

 

Your best luck would be to get it jumped and run it for a bit and than pull off the negative, and if it dies you need an alternator.
It shouldn't be running that poorly?

 

I have had a red manifold and lack of engine power myself, but it was caused by the distributor hold down bolt loosening up and allowing the distributor to rotate. I dont remember if it advanced or retarded the timing, but I had a lot of the same issues as you had. I didnt lose electrical power.

I havent had a bad alternator to cause all of that, but it would be something to look into. Hope this helps.

 

its getting towed home. im going to replace the alternator and battery (the battery is pretty weak anyways). and see what happens.

 

Well I replaced the battery and alternator and now itcrab fir about 5 min, then the battery light came on and the voltage dropped and limped it into the driveway where it died. The voltage won't even drip if I try to start it. It won't do anything! Help!!!!