New alternator question Options

[Stu37363]

I installed a new alternator 170 amp. it seems to be working great. it drove to the gas station, but then for the first time in years my car wouldnt start and i had to roll start it today. ive got an optima yellow top battery.

I have upgraded the battery ground, but have not upgraded the alt to battery wire or the engine to chassis wire.

I was testing out my alt and was cranking out music, my speakers pulled about 60 amps and the speakers started to get fuzzy and quiet, so i turned the volumn down and revved the engine out of instinct, and it went away before i could figure out what was going on.

I know this is probably a stupid question, but is it possible i blew some charging fuse or something?

voltage shows 14.5 when running and was showing 11.5 when it wouldnt start.

Does the wire from the alt go straight to the battery, or does it split or get fused at any point?

Happy to give any more info, i just dont know what else you may need to know.

Thanks

[barterj]

when does it show 11.5, from the battery with the car off?

[Stu37363]

when does it show 11.5, from the battery with the car off?

Yes

[Stu37363]

heres whats happened so far

started car fine and went to gas station

went to leave and it wouldnt start so i pushed it down a hill and popped the clutch and it started

went inside for a few hours

installed 4ga fused wire from alt to battery

started fine

listened to music for a minute

i turned the car off and it wouldnt start again

The car is not clicking like they usually do, its just buzzing like the solenoid is opening, but the starter wont turn

everything was fine until i installed the new alternator, and when its running the voltage is right where it should be.

This post has been edited by Stu37363: Feb 26, 2011 - 6:20 PM

[Stu37363]

Also, the only thing they had i could use for a fuse was a breaker. This thing had an in and and out on it. does it really matter which way its going? this is from the alt to the battery, and i wasnt sure if it really mattered.

Thanks

[Stu37363]

new information...

charged battery, it was showing 12.5 with car off.

wouldnt start.

turned on headlights and they arent dimming when i try to start the car.

this happened when i replaced my alternator, but i dont see how it could cause this.

need this thin running, any help is appreciated.

car seems to click once then hum when i turn the key

Thanks

[barterj]

You don't need to add a fused link from the alternator to the battery, that's built into one of the fuse relay/boxes, so you can get rid of that, and fuse for your audio system should be in the positive live to the amp. what does it do when you try and start it?

This post has been edited by barterj: Feb 26, 2011 - 10:42 PM

[Stu37363]

ok, so alternator seems good and battery seems good, so i guess my starter died or i need to find a wiring diagram and start checking things one at a time.

[barterj]

what does it do when you try to start it?

[Stu37363]

what does it do when you try to start it?

it clicks once and then hums

[Stu37363]

Pretty sure it is the starter, I hit it a few times with a socket extension and it cranked up. Does that mean I just replace the solenoid or can I do that?

[mgnt232]

Same thing happened to me, one more way to kind of check, is to pop start it. (look it up if you dont know).
If it starts, it more than likely a bad starter. You can get remanned ones from any autoplace for only like a 100 bucks (30-40$ core)

[delusionz]

before you go messing with the starter, if you're only getting 11 volts on battery then its gonna have a hard time starting if at all.

and what you described sounds normal for trying to start it with not enough juice in the battery.

if you turn the key and hold it in the starter position does it click forever or does it die off?

if it clicks forever then u have good battery but bad power cable/ground otherwise if it dies off then its the battery.

if you keep trying to crank it does it drain the battery down further?

how old is the battery?

[NYp8tBaller07]

How did you check to see that the alt. and battery were good because it seems very odd that getting a new alt. would make it unreliable firing up when you had no problems before.

[Stu37363]

The alternator is increasing the voltage when it runs, so I assume it's fine since it's a rebuilt one. The battery is being tested now. I noticed the voltage shows 12.5 on my gauge after driving and stopping the engine. Overnight it drops to 11.5 volts. So my next step is to check the draw and pull fuses. It just seems weird all this started with my new alternator. Is it possible if the alt belt is too tight the starter will have trouble turning over the engine?

[Stu37363]

ok, so had my battery tested and its good.

I put the fully charged battery in my car and tested it for draw.

im not really sure what the reading on the meter means, but i put it on the 10a setting and it showed .10.

i found that my main power run to the amps was pulling .06 and my dome fuse was pulling .02

im not sure what this is a measurement of, but it killed my battery in about an hour.

i tested the remote wire with a test light and it did not light up.

im going to work on this again tomorrow, any thoughts between now and then are welcome.

Thanks

Edit:

Did more work today, got the draw down to .02, which i believe is 20 milliamps, which should be fine.

still didnt help, so im just going to replace the started and hope a bad starter is draining my battery.

This post has been edited by Stu37363: Mar 4, 2011 - 3:41 AM

[stephen_lee]

i've left my optima over night with a 1-2A draw for years and it always started no problem. replace ur battery + to starter wire with a 4ga one from the parts store && see if it helps. i replaced a starter once and all it was was that stupid wire. $4 wire > $120 STARTER

a fully charged yellow top should carry a 10a draw for 5 hours, it seems like u mean ur getting a 0.10a draw, which is normal. stock my ST pulled ~ .6a (.4 was in the dome circuit)

[Stu37363]

replaced starter and its working great now.

The starter gear was not retracting, so i guess it was constantly dragging the engine.

Learned so much finding this problem.

Thanks for everyone's help.

This post has been edited by Stu37363: Mar 5, 2011 - 9:00 PM

[zfjohnson07]

well if it does it again check your wires under the dash. today my car wouldnt start id turn the key and it didnt try to start or nothing, i pushed it in neutral about a foot got in the car and it started right up. wouldnt start later, pushed it and it started right up. i dont think its my starter either because ive replaced one on my last car.

[Galcobar]

Having to beat on the starter to get it to crank is usually indicative of worn contacts -- the plunger cannot close properly, so insufficient current flows to crank the starter.

It's a very simple fix to rebuild the starter contacts, actually. http://www.celicatech.com/forums/showthrea...arter%20contact