OK, I'm gonna make this quick because I'm at work and my car's outside and I'm waiting for someone to bring me a multi-meter, or at leas a volt-meter for today. It's a 6 cylinder '87 Camaro and I'm going through alternators like you wouldn't believe.

When I bought the car, the alternator was bad, but I fixed it once I got it insured and registered. The battery was fine, and everything was good. A few months down the road my battery light comes on while I'm late for the SATs and my car just completely dies.

Afterwards, I bring it home and open the hood expecting to just test the alternator and battery, but instead, there's coolant everywhere and a hole in my radiator

So for Christmas, I get a battery and a radiator for Christmas, and I replace the alternator cuz the other one was under warranty. And everything was beautiful, until my alternator dies AGAIN! This time it didn't even last as long, but it's the same thing, my alternator is bad, and the battery is fine. So I replace it.

And guess what, it goes bad! So I was on my way to school this morning, and the battery light comes on, and my only guess is: the alternator is bad.

What could be making my alternators die like this? Could there be a short somewhere? Someone at NAPA said it's even possible that the belt is loose, but there's definitely enough tension there.

Or, how could I test the charging system to isolate the problem? I'm going out there with a multi-meter right now, but I'll be keeping an eye on these boards for a few days. Thanks in advance.

Charlie

 

Same thing, here... or so it seemed!

Maybe the alternator was bad, but on the latest one we had, I checked the fuses and one of the fuses was in bad shape.. Sometimes it would have a connection, sometimes it wouldn't.

I replaced the fuse, and WOW. The battery started charging and we thought the alternator was bad (was going to get it replaced AGAIN)

The fuse was labeled something stupid like "FAN"

 

Believe it or not ... I found out the problem.

The tiewrap or whatever that was supposed to be holding the Negative battery cable in place was loosened (somehow ... tiewraps are supposed to be GODLY) and the cable was running right next to a pully. The cable and the pully would occasionally make contact, wearing down the insulation and shorting out.

So I replaced the tiewrap and taped up the cable until I get around to just buying another one. I still had to replace the alternator though.

And I can't guarentee that's what my problem was, only time will tell, but I'm pretty sure.