Pulling my hair out over a charging issue on a 97 tacoma

One gets what one pays for.

 

Check around your area. Where I lived and worked at the time there was a place called George's Gibsonia Alternator. His prices were amazingly reasonable and he could rebuild/repair anything electrical. While working for advance and the zone I used to send customers there often. He would buy component and rebuild parts from us, but save the customer time and headaches. He even rebuilt at least 4 starters and 3 alternators for me, far cheaper than a remanufactured one would have been even with my discount.

 

This x10

I had a shop that pulled and overhauled an alt on a 300zxt; the labor was not trivial for just the R&R. Their out the door cost was under what a reman unit from a big box parts house would have been, and I'd have still had to do the work.

No regrets here!

 

That's the connection for the regulator. The hot wire that runs directly to the positive stud on the battery is connected to the alternator with a nut on a small stud.

If the voltage regulator is fried then it will charge at higher rpm sometimes but not at idle. I had that issue a few moths back.

The issue might not be with the alternator, but with the regulator pigtail and/or wiring.

If you have a volt meter you can check it really easily to see if the alternator is putting out what it should. As long as you're comfortable with sticking your hands in there with the motor running that is

 

I had a volt meter but it melted when I tested the voltage between the two battery poles while the engine was running. I have one more but I'm afraid of the same thing happening. I'm guessing it was a fluke with my meter, they should usually be fine with car batteries I assume? Unless you need a special one.

 

Are you joking,shitting or lying about that statement? If serious. What melted?

 

Nah. I was holding the black on black, and the red on red, looking down at the volt meter start to climb and my hands felt really warm all of a sudden. I looked down and the wires were sticky and smoking. Smoke was also coming out of the other ports on the meter. I tossed it in a snowbank.

 

Word. Well I wouldn't spend too much of my time on the internet trying to diagnose this issue. The vehicle should be left un-driven in a mechanics hands til the issues' addressed.

 

Ya... That shouldn't happen...

Make sure your meter is on 20v dc. Positive probe goes to the terminal on the alternator. Negative goes to ground or the negative post on the battery. The reading should be about 14v.

Try revving the motor to about 2000rpm if it's lower than 13v. If it stays low or is too high at idle then it's the regulator, pigtail, or wiring.

This is assuming your belt is tensioner properly and not slipping

 

????
With the leads in the right connections and the settings correct on the dial that would NEVER happen...
Even if you had it hooked up wrong, the internal circuitry is protected. Is your voltmeter made of forks and cheese?

 

Yeah I didn't think it was going to melt on me, but I most likely had it hooked up wrong. I wasn't thinking. After I threw it in the snowbank it sat there reading 86 volts and slowly ticked down from there. Strange incident. *shrug*

 

BFE is the airport code for Bumfuck, Egypt.

 

Do any of the wires get hot while it's running?
If you take the ground cable loose from the truck with the truck off, no lights on, no radio, not even interior lights. Does the cable have a make a small electrical arc? If your battery light comes on shut the truck off and see if it the battery cable arcs.

 

Try taking the plug out of the back of the alternator and see if it has crap in it.

 

There is an arc (I think) putting it back on, but not pulling it off. Any time I plug my battery back in the POS aftermarket security system shrieks in my ear, so it's always kind of a do-it-quick, brace-for-impact kind of situation. But I can hear it pop/spark a bit whenever I reattach. There is no arc when I pull it off. I'll check again carefully.

That plug in the back of the alt had some old dielectric grease on it, but was fine other than that. I got in there with a little file and some contact cleaner when I had the old one out just for good measure.



Right now I have an additional jumper on top of the existing cables running from the alt to the battery. I want to try disconnecting the old wire from the alternator, but I'm not sure if that wire splits off and powers the starter and rest of the vehicle, or if it runs straight to the battery. I know theres a ground cable wrapped up in that wire harness and I wonder if the old line from the alternator periodically (most of the time) shorts into it somehow.

The voltmeter I threw in the snowbank survived and seems to still work. I had it running on the non-fused terminals for more than the recommended 10 seconds, that's why it overloaded.

 

I'm still having an issue with the smoking VOM. You can smoke a VOM if you take a voltage reading while its set for resistance/Ohms, that will blow the VOM fuse, not cause it to fry. Regardless the alternator should be putting out ~14 volts.

 

Bum Fuc* Egypt.

 

He might have a $3 multi meter.

 

If you have an arc going back on it means something is drawing power, and a circuit is closed, no arc means everything that supposed to be is open. If your alarm goes off it's probably that causing it to arc.

 

I thought it was bum fuck egypt