Alternator good or not?
Senior User
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 374
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From: Ridgecrest, CA
One thing I have noticed with the solid state rectifiers/alternators, if the battery voltage is too low, the alternator won't charge the battery. It's happened to me a couple of times. I guess progress is not always the best thing?
Posting Guru
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,720
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Just $.02. I have actually had an alternator fail (as others) then rebuild by a Professional ? facility. Then it failed twice more each time they assured me it was 100% right. The 3rd failure I replaced the alternator took the defective one apart. Then I checked the regulator. I split open the case and looked at the circuit board under a magnifier and found that one of the very tiny leads had cracked. I also had the factory service manual showing the schematic. The alternator would work until the lead heated up under load. Under heat it would pull away from the circuit board and cause the alternator to go to 100 % full out put and burn out the diodes. So keep in mind you can have an alternator go bad but 99% of the time I found a battery that would charge to full voltage but not have the rerserve capacity to start. When the starter motor would engage the voltage would drop below the required necessary to turn the engine over. So in summary I would look very closely at the batteries. But then just another $.02 Jim
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Myfreeford
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Nov 4, 2016 07:50 PM
