[fourty4magjr]

ok so yesterday my jeep wouldnt start. jumped it and drove it around to charge the battery back up and let it sit running for 2 hours. shut it off and battery had no charge... took battery and alternator out of the heap i mean jeep and had them tested was the alternator as i assumed since the battery is less than 6 months old. bought an new alternator (2001 dodge durango 160 amp) and installed it jeep atarted right up drove it around a bit. brought it home went out to eat brought it home then had to go rescue my sister because she locked my dads keys in his truck. did that and went to start the jeep and...nothing... tried again and nothing. got jumpoed and drove right back to autozone and they tested it and it was bad. so figured i just got a bad alternator. well new ones in and jeeps sitting and running but doesnt seem to be getting any more juice the light are still flickering and the dash is at 14 but when i drive it it moves past 14 sloightly then jumps to 18/19 or whatever the max is and the check guage light comes on. that i figured was normal. it happened when i got a new battery while i was driving to charge it up so i ignored it this time. what could be causeing this to happen? if this alternator endss up bad again what the hell is causing my jeep to kill them???

figures shi... stuff like this would happen just after i get all the junk to finish up my 4" currie lift and 8.8 swap... YAY JEEPS!!!!!!:banghead:

 

[Shelby427]

Well couple of things. #1 all your connections have to be clean and tight. Especially at the battery. All it take is a little corrosion and you'll have poor starting and charging.

#2 did you charge the battery back up while you were installing the alternator? The newer alternators have to see 12 volts minimum to operate. Not like the old ones where you could jump start a vehicle and disconnect the battery and the vehicle would keep running. Also don't even think of attempting that on a newer vehicle, if the alternator doesn't see 12 volts it can go full output, and your computer and a lot of other electrical items aren't going to like it.

 

[Shelby427]

Rereading your post, NO the volt gauge jumping to 18/19 volts is not normal, and it's why the lamp is coming on. The alternator is going full output on you. Not good.

Unless you have a 2nd bad alternator, you have a bad connection somewhere. The 12 volts to the alternator is dropping off.

 

[fourty4magjr]

Yea died on me again!!! Connections are clean and the first time I swapped the alternator it was charged enough to start the vehicle right after it was put in. But this most recent one no needed jumped to start and never charged te battery so it's dead. I'm guessing I killed another alternator or the jeep killed another one.

 

[fourty4magjr]

Rereading your post, NO the volt gauge jumping to 18/19 volts is not normal, and it's why the lamp is coming on. The alternator is going full output on you. Not good.

Unless you have a 2nd bad alternator, you have a bad connection somewhere. The 12 volts to the alternator is dropping off.

Well that happened before when I got the new battery 6 months ago. And only did that while I was driving to charge it up. After that it never happened again. Now I have a dead battery and it did that again so I figured it was just the alternator putting out a bunch of power trying to charge the battery up... Guess I was wrong? Lol where do you think there is a bad connection?

 

[fourty4magjr]

I'm going to disconnect the battery and see if the terminals are ok and give them a good cleaning. I guess there's not much else I can do at the moment besides hope that this newest alternator didnt give up on me.....again.

 

[fourty4magjr]

We are up and running! Thanks for the help ill let ya know if anything comes up but it started under its own power after cleaning the terminal and tightened up the positive connection and bam started up!