Charging system problem

[blk_srt]

So I just got everything fixed on my talon and its running great, I'm getting great gas milage and its alot more powerful and everything. But tonight I just made a new sub box and installed everything and it looks sweet and it sounded pretty good but I need to fine tune it because I'm not getting any mids just lows. Anyway back to my story, so after I get everything hooked up I started on my way home and looked at my afc and the volts were reading close to 17. After about 5 minutes it dropped to 11 and then went all the way down to 7.4, but I kept driving because I was 90 miles away from home and I had school in the morning. My first thought was my alternator was shot but the volts were fluxuating so I didnt think that would be it. Also the srs light, the abs light, the brake light, the coolant light and the battery light were all on and the tach was jomping around at idle even though the revs were staying the same. The only other thing that I did was degrease my motor and I got some degreaser on the alternator and water to but I didnt think that would hurt it much. Any ideas as to what it might be? Also your lights look really cool at 17 volts lol

[crunchymilk55]

Your alternator is going out. If the rpm needle is already jumping, it shouldn't last more than a few minutes now.

Im glad you got your other stuff fixed, but alternators are VERY fragile. I dropped maybe 2 drops of power steering fluid on mine, cleaned it, and still blew the alternator. Also, I'd recommend putting both heat shields back on. It is PROVEN that running no heat shield shortens the life of alternators dramatically.

[blk_srt]

I'd put them back on but the care never came with one and I'm going to be putting on a tubular manifold hopfully next week. Kind of funny since you just asked my how my altenator lol

[blk_srt]

Tested the alternator today, when the machiene went to put a load on the battery the whole car died lol. So I'm getting a new on wednesday, $132 with a lifetime warrentee. Then I can figure out what my next problem will be lol

[crunchymilk55]

there will be another one, if i were you i would look into getting some heat shields from a junk yard

my buddy runs without heat shields and goes through an alternator a month, his lifetime warranty buys him a new one every time, but it's still annoying