Background - 89 camaro irocz, auto, tpi

Few weeks back, some ******* rips out cd player, rips out negative battery terminal, which I had to screw back in at 2am. Next thing I know, my fans don't come on anymore. Luckily I have a toggle switch, but they don't come on by themselves anymore? Any ideas?

Next problem, just a week ago, I notice instead of usually running 13-15 amps, It's running 12 and sometimes as low as 10. Battery is charging fine. Alternator just replaced today and still no change.

PLEASE HELP

 

Double check the negative conection. Do you have a volt meter to use when troubleshooting these problems?

 

Look at the fuse panel, upper right top for a fuse labeled "fan/chg" and see if it is blown. Should be a 10 amp if memory serves me. Otherwise possibly a fuse link was blown or there is a wire cut.

 

Thanks for responding. The battery is actually reading 14 volts, yet the alternator is reading 13 volts with a voltmeter. On the gauge it's running about 10? Fuse is fine.

 

The voltage at the battery is the most important thing to worry about. Below 12.5 volts will discharge the battery, needs to be at least 13.0 volts to charge it. Normal is 13.8 to 14.0 volts.
Double check the voltage at the Alt; it should be exactly the same as the battery voltage. Use the same “ground” connection for the voltmeter. If they really are different by more then about 0.2 volts, you have a bad battery cable or ground connection.
Test for bad grounding by putting one voltmeter lead on the battery - and the other lead on the case of the Alt (to get a good reading you need to scratch the tip of the meter lead a few times against the surface of whatever your trying to read. Surface oxidation is an insulator; you have to scratch thru it down to bare metal). Should read 0.0 to 0.2 volts. Anything higher means a bad ground.

Bad Volts gauge readings are very common on our cars now that they are getting old. Is the Volts gauge reading stable or does the reading jump around (fluctuate)?
On my car, I have found that the cigarette lighter socket voltage is very close to the actual battery voltage (it does not go thru the ignition switch).

I'll check my manuals to see how your car is wired, then get back to you with some things to check for the fan problem.

 

He's correct, don't forget there is a fuse link between the alt and the battery. Battery terminal voltage when running and the voltage at the rear post should be identical. If you see a volt or so difference suspect the link. The main tie point for the links is usually at the starter hot battery terminal. As far as the guages are concerned they rarely fail. If you suspect a false guage reading tap the guage face or the trim piece. If the guage bounces do this. Take off the trim panel and the clear plastic cover. the guage has 2 fasteners that hold it in. Remove them and then gently pull the guage out. You will see that the guage has threaded studs that push into broad finger contacts. On the back of the guage you will see a small ceramic block, it is a bypass resistor. It is held by 2 small special hex nuts. mark the block to make sure which side is facing up. Take off the nuts and clean the round metal contact surfaces. Usually they will look black, clean them with alcohol till they shine up and then spray a little WD-40 on a rag and wipe them with that. Reinstall the nuts, don't overtighten them or you can crack the ceramic resistor. Spray the threads left over lightly with WD and reinstall. 9 out of 10 times that fixes it. I have done a bunch of them and never had a problem after that.