As I was driving home last night I noticed that my lights where kinda dim and that the volts were showing somewhere around 9 volts. I stopped at a stop light and made a right turn and the battery light came on and I lost power steering for a moment. When driving straight, the only problem was that I was losing juice and a squeeling noise at higher RPMs. When turning, the battery light comes on and I still lose power steering for a moment and the truck tries to die, if I give her more gas she comes through. As I got closer to home the lights got dimmer and dimmer and there was a really loud squeeling coming from the engine compartment. I had to keep down shifting periodically to get the RPMs up to give me power. I barely made it home.

My first thought was the altinator: tested good
I replaced the battery with a new one ( was doing that anyway this weekend)

Now When idling in the garage, it reads about 10 volts and when I turn the steering wheel the batt light comes on, but the squeeling is gone and i cannot pinpoint where it was coming from.

My thought is that I have one of the accessories going out and it is putting to much strain on the belt and that is not letting the altinator do it's job.

For pullys I have: Water pump, altinator, power steering, ac, smog, and the crank!

I took the belt off and spun all of the pullys as much as I could and the only two that do not spin freely are the smog and the power steering.

If this is not an accessory what could it be?

 

Check your battery cable connections on both ends. It sounds like you had the same problem that I once had with my 88 F-150, the ground cable was the culprit. I replaced it with a 18" #2 gage cable and grounded it to the alternator bracket. Have not had a problem since. My voltage would get so low that the radio would loose its memory every time I started it up. It would also stall when making turns.

 

If that is the cae, I would be extatic. The only problem is the squeeling. I'm not sure where it was coming from.

 

I was just given some advice that it may be the belt. I just replaced it about a week ago but if it is slipping, it would cause this as well.

 

Sounds like the Alternator. If you're not getting 14+ volts at the battery terminals with the engine idling, the alternator or the internal regulator or rectifier could be fried. These problems will not show up on the bench top alt tester at a garage.

 

I do not know what I am getting at the battery terminals, I am using the dash gauge to determine the volts.

 

What engine do you have?? My 5.8 takes one belt because my GVWR is over 8500lbs. The other belt ( under 8500lbs ) is 3/8 in. diff..... Make sure to follow the routing label on the Rad support..I have seen them 2 ways..

 

I've had similar issues with voltage and Mantta nailed my problem. It could be any of the probs stated above, but the postive cable was my problem. It was really corroded on the inside of the insulation and many of the copper filaments were split near the terminal (found upon replacing terminal post). ...replaced that battery post and it solved my problem but my cable probably should be replaced as after market terminal post requires some periodic maintenance.

 

OK I have figured it out. I took the belt in when I took my old battery in for the core charge and the numbers did not match the box that they gave me. It was the same diamiter but a little wider by maybe an 1/8 of an inch. That caused the belt to slip on the sides of the pullys. put the new belt on and it works flawlessly!

Thanks to all who gave advice!