Alternator Problems

[lovemybadkitty]

I have a 98 ram air trans am. I put my a/c on and after a short period of time the charge gauge inside the car shows that it slightly discharging instead of charging normally. I thought it was maybe the alternator so I replaced it with a new GM alternator with the same results. It happens with the ac on but when i shut the ac off it still does not charge any better. Puzzeled to say the least?

[doodad]

are you sure all the battery cables connected right to the alternator? your belt is tight enough? how the car starts? do you have any peoblem when you try to start the car? if u dont have any problems with starting the car maybe thet gauge is goin crazy.. l am sure other friends will be much much more helpful..

Erdal

[Im3good4u]

The guages on these cars are completely useless. IF your car is working fine and you can start it up fine then dont worry about .
Starting your car should tell you alot... If your having problem starting then check your battery other than but dont buy a new bettery without checking it...My educated guess is that your guage is retarded like mine.

[doodad]

Originally Posted by Im3good4u

The guages on these cars are completely useless. IF your car is working fine and you can start it up fine then dont worry about .
Starting your car should tell you alot... If your having problem starting then check your battery other than but dont buy a new bettery without checking it...My educated guess is that your guage is retarded like mine.

mine is retarted too.. when l break, the gas gauge goes close to empty and when l accelerate, it goes to full so far l have that one crazy..

[Im3good4u]

LOL...same exact thing with me but water temp and oil temp go down as well

[knight7]

Originally Posted by Im3good4u

LOL...same exact thing with me but water temp and oil temp go down as well

Same here.. In addition, the speedometer needle goes down as well. Instead of going up, it goes down! lol jk. I had the same problem couple weeks ago. When i pressed on accelerator, the battery gauge would go up and when i let go, it kept on discharging when on idle. This was fixed once i put a new alternator. I went to autozone and they checked my alternator, battery and belt. The guy told me that it was my voltage regulator that didnt produce enough amps. So i bought a new one and installed it 2 days ago, and boy the car was better than ever. Also i had bought a new drive belt . I bought the most expensive one becuz i am retarded and want my bird to fly! So yea.. check your belt and battery. Starting your car should definately tell you a lot. In addition, see how your headlights are when the needle is at redline. This would tell you if your gauge is messed up or it really is your battery. Obviously, if lights are dim or internal lights come up very dim when the battery guage is at redline then this means that your gauge is right. If everything is bright just like how it is supposed to be, then your gauge is messed up. Another way of checking this is by putting your windows up and down if they are powered. If they go real slow, its your battery or other wise its the opposite. Hope this helps.

[lovemybadkitty]

I have used two different batteries. New drive belt and tensioner. cables are tight. This alt. has only one battery wire and a small gauge wire on a plug. Seems like the problem gets worse as the engine warms up. I guess I get worried sitting in traffic and watching the needle showing discharge.

[Mr. Luos]

It is a battery gauge right??
Not a charging/discharging gauge?

What level does it drop to? Does it kick right back up when you get on the gas?

[83T/A98Blazer]

You need to get a hold of a voltmeter. Check the voltage at idle with nothing running, with the A/C running, and while revving. That should tell you what your alternator is doing. It should read around 14.4 volts all the time. At idle with everything running it may drop a little, but not much.

[Mr. Luos]

Even better....just take it to a local auto parts place like AutoZone or Checker.
They will check your charging system for free.

Sounds to me like you are getting normal drain from the A/C though. But I shall wait for your answers to my questions above.

[knight7]

For now, when yer in the middle of the traffic(redlight or when u have to wait for long), put it in neutral and this wont discharge your battery.

[lovemybadkitty]

Thanks for all the input! I think that I'm just going to put a dc clamp meter and go from there. I am a hurricane Katrina zone member so auto zone techs are little more then trained chimps around here. But like I said It only happens when the motor is hot. Seems like I have a thermal problem?

[rather_b_boatin]

My bird does the same thing. For some reason lifetime autozone alternator likes to eat 1 diode on the regulator (there are 4 on a typical rectifier) this takes charging voltage from 14.4 to about 13.4-12.3. This seems to happen about once a year, I just go get a new one every year under warranty. I've also had the pos batt. connection loosen up on me and cause same symptoms, voltage goes to like 8 volts when you step on the brake.

[frizbal]

Originally Posted by doodad

mine is retarted too.. when l break, the gas gauge goes close to empty and when l accelerate, it goes to full so far l have that one crazy..

The reason the gas go's up and down is just the gas sloshing around in the tank. when you break it moves to the front of the tank, away from the sensor.

[DarkblueTA]

Originally Posted by knight7

For now, when yer in the middle of the traffic(redlight or when u have to wait for long), put it in neutral and this wont discharge your battery.

I have yet to ever see that happen on any car I owned, manual or automatic.

Besides, the car doesn't run off the battery. The battery's ONLY job is to start the car. The car runs off the Alternator.