Weird charging problem

[SLICK78]

Allright guys here is the deal I am having a problem with my wagon. I hop in to go to work couple days ago and notice my "GEN" light is on and I have a volt guage and it is showing 11.5 - 12 volts. came home after work same thing. I have checked all my connections at the alt and the batt evenput a charger on the batt and the batt is fine. I have never had a alt that dropped in voltage they either work or they dont. But it is holding steady at 11.5-12 volts. suggestions??? I'm seriously ](*,)

 

[Robert1320]

The battery should have 12.5- 12.8 volts, more with the alternator. Your alt has gone bad get a new one.

 

[SLICK78]

thats what I was thinking autozone has a 100 amp for our cars for 94.00 so I think that is what I am going to do but i want to have mine tested first since I have never had one just start charging low they either work or they dont :-k

 

[Robert1320]

Sometime they will put out voltage but no amperage.

 

[bigbadbu]

my alternator just did the same thing over the winter (yea i drive it all year round) it was putting out 14 volts but no amps got a new one and bag problem solved

 

[AllMtR85SS]

by any chance did you move your battery to your trunk? because i had the same problem, with a 100 amp alt from powermaster between 8-13 feet of wire i believe they want you to run 6 guage to get the proper amperage. so if you made a change you could check your wire guage.

 

[Robert1320]

by any chance did you move your battery to your trunk? because i had the same problem, with a 100 amp alt from powermaster between 8-13 feet of wire i believe they want you to run 6 guage to get the proper amperage. so if you made a change you could check your wire guage.

6 ga at min. 4 is better.

 

[AllMtR85SS]

i stand corrected!

 

[Robert1320]

i stand corrected!

No big deal!

 

[gbodystuff]

I ran 2-gauge (Lightning Audio with 2,989 strands) from my alt charge post to the trunk battery. And 2-gauge all the way from the cutoff behind the back bumper to the 150-amp circuit breaker junction behind the pass headlight. I get a 12.3V everywhere with engine off and 14.6 everywhere with car running. I went overkill on wiring size to eliminate voltage drop. $5.25 per foot for the HD wiring but it is worth it. Keep in mind that current moves more efficiently through a lot of copper strands vs. a few large ones. For this reason, use high quality audio cable vs. big battery cable style cables.