I just got a car from a friend of mines last week. While driving home from work on sunday. while driving, i noticed that the radio kept cutting off and on but I didn‘t pay attention to it (thought it was faulty wiring). I kept driving and noticed that all my lights (gauges, headlights,etc) were getting dim and that my car hesitated before accelerating from the stoplight. I luckily made it home but now trying to see if its the problem with the alternator or if it‘s the battery that needs to be replaced (battery was brought 11/10 from what the sticker says)?Note: It‘s a 1989 Chevrolet Caprice
Place the leads of a voltmeter with the red lead on the positive battery post and the black lead on the negative battery post. With the car not started the meter on Volts DC the reading should be about 12 volts or higher. Start the car the reading should go to 13 .9 volts to 14.2 volts. If the battery with out the car being started is below the 12 volts DC the battery is either bad or not charged. If the volt after starting is below 13.9 volts DC the altenator is bad.
You got a pretty decent answer already. My point is that IF the alternator is not working properly there should be a nice red battery looking icon on the dash. The icon indicates the battery is the only source of power to the car and that means the alternator is not working. There are a few reasons why an alternator is not working. Only a mechanic will know and how to replace it. Note. All sentences require a punctuation at the end. Including the last one. Read any book to notice this grammatical requirement. You failed to do that because, like so many others, you have copied this error from others who copied the error, etc. X a trillion times. Still a grammatical error. A HUGE one.
Hello Get a friend with jump leads and a Volt Meter. Connect Jump Leads Other car Positive Battery Post Your car P B P Other car Negative B P Your car good earth like Engine Lifting eye. Start other car and let it charge your battery 10 minutes. Meanwhile take a Volt Reading (Across your Battery) It should read maximum of 14.5 Volts even if you rev the other car. (This shows a correct charging system) Remove V M Start your Engine Remove J L Repeat V R, If it does the same now your Charging system is OK. If it goes over 14.5 Volts when revved the Voltage Regulator is faulty (Part of the Alternator) and may also have cooked the battery. To check battery Turn off and take V R if it shows less than 12 Volts cooked If it shows 12 Volts leave for 20 minutes and check again less than 12 Volts cooked. Batteries are 6 X 2 Volt Cells but only give 6 X worst Cell so 6 X 1.5 Volt 9 Volt. I would also remove fuse for radio whilst checking as this could be a direct drain. Andy C
difficult step. query onto yahoo and bing. it might help!
