My wife has been very patient her 850 broke an idler pulley changed that and then.....well, I went through 3 alternators and got the voltage back to 13.9 at start up thought all was good so I told her to take it to work. She got towed home it killed the battery the voltage has been beating me up. It must be something stupid like me but I can't get her to charge it's a 95 with 117K

 

Charging is a pretty reliable usually. So you are saying it does not charge right now. Yes? and you have a volt meter. And the battery light comes on, right? Does it go out with the engine running? What is your voltage running/not running.

 

also if you totally drained the battery when the alternator failed you may need to replace it. First check battery voltage with the engine off. Should be ~12.6V. Jump start the car and check the voltage at the battery with the engine running. Should be ~14V. Now turn on all your electrical loads - high beam, fan blower on hi, rear defrost etc. voltage should sustain over 13V at idle. If you can't retain the charge after running the car for 15 minutes, time for a new battery.

 

You guys need to help. I have a new alternator, new tensioner, new idler roller but when I start it it doesn't charge I peg it to 3K and let it go it idles at 13.9 Help

 

Does the battery light work?

 

I'd do two things - 1) check and make sure all terminals and connecters are clean and tight. 2) replace the overload relay (should be in the fuse box up by the firewall - owners manual should say which slot)

As background, there's not a lot of components in the charging system. First the alternator is really two things - its the generator "motor" plus a voltage regulator. If the generator or regulator's diodes fails you may get zero volts or something less than 13V. Typically you replace both with a new alternator so I don't suspect this is the problem. Side bar - Newer alternators use a voltage sensing lead to know if the system voltage requires the alternator to kick in - not sure what year that started with. Next you have your cabling. If the cable ends get corroded - either at the battery terminal, altnerator or starter motor, they will heat up and melt the insulation. best to check and see if your cabling is in good shape - no cracked or broken connectors etc. If there is more than a .2V drop between the two ends of a cable, you need to check grounds/terminals/connectors. Last part is the overload relay. Not sure where or which slot that's in but if it is old and sticky, time to replace.

 

Thanks battery light works firebird. Cleaned and re-soldered connections but didn't know about relay. Will be checking that out. Thanks so much now I don't need a straight jacket.

 

Sorry been on vacation and because I flew been down with a cold I swapped out overload fuses 1 at a time using the fuses from my 96 didn't help even bought bought more fuses from FCP. I think I need a mechanic( sad to say)

 

What is the voltage running?

 

When I start the car it just draws off the battery which has a full charge then I bump the motor up to 3k it starts at about 13.9

 

It sounds like the new alternator is not any good. You say you've had three alternators, so I kind of hate to come to that conclusion. Where did these alternators come from?

 

got 2 from pep boys shame on me the last one from Ebay Bosch rebuilt. I'm wondering if the wire to the voltage regulator is bad but don't know where it goes?

 

I thought about that. If that were the case, I don't think revving it up would ever make it start, but I could be wrong. After you rev it up and get 13.9 volts, does it keep working at idle?

 

Yes that’s the weird part about it