The last couple of weeks ive had a problem with my car looseing power when stopped or backing up in reverse. Its not dying just really low amps.

When out drive6ing my car with nothing turned on its reading 14.00 volts to 14.35 volts and with everything turned on its 13.60 to 13.90 volts. Thats lights, ac, fans, radio, blinkers.

Now when my car is at a stop light or in reverse its dropping down to 10.50 to 11.20 volts. The blinkers even stop blinking and the lights go dem. Then when i leave from a stop the car wants to jerk/buck when you first give it the gas.

I took the battery and alternator to a shop and the guy said they were fine but after cleaning all my connection its still doing it. Im kinda leaning towards the alternator going out or somthing.

can anyone help?

 

I would also guess the alternator.

 

Yea i think im gonna go ahead and get a new one.....thx

 

Belt slipping or underdrive pulley installed?

 

Sounds like a bad connection somewhere-check engine block ground strap,and battery cables especially.also could be a bad ignition switch-if
alternator not working would still have 12.5-
13v for a while

 

I checked and cleaned all wires yesterday when i put everything back on the car, someone said something about a wire on the starter? Thats the only thing ive not checked.

Also just put a new belt on yesterday and it didn't change anything.

The car does have underdrive pulleys but the past owner left the underdrive pulley off the alternator, I have it in a box in the shed.


If I can get my alternator off my truck im gonna put it on the car for a couple hours and see if anything changes.

thxs guys for the help!!

 

Ok I got the alternator off the truck and got it onto the Camaro, and then took the car down the road. The proble is still there, almost dyed when I when to leave the stop sign with all the stuff turned on, just as soon as I get going the voltage is back to 13.60volts with everything on.

So tomorrow I will unhook all the wires again and give them one more cleaning.

So could someone tell me about the wire i need to clean on the starter? Could that maybe be my problem? That seems to be the suggestion from everyone I talk to to maybe check next.

thx again

 

I just checked my trouble codes and got code 32, and code 42. Any suggestions?

 

Could be the car's body is not grounded properly-batt cables probably ok if car cranks good-connect a 12-10 Ga.
wire to a solid metal part on engine and the other end to
the body,under a bolt etc.Check the pos. batt cable where
it connects to the starter motor stud,even if cables look ok
they could have broken or corroded strands.
if no problems found there ,check ignition switch.

 

i just went threw this same exact problem the original poster is going threw.

My issue was a washer on the one wire on back of alt got corroded and started falling apart. The deteariating washer caused a bad charging current due to a low contact point that caused resistance. I found the issue due to one night the car didnt want to restart and had to get a jump. After it refired the washer was glowing red and thats when i fixed it at home and solved all my issues.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't leaving the underdrive off the alternator but still putting it on the crank still result in less spin?

I mean yeah the alternator will get more spin with It's own pulley not installed but the crank is where all the spin originates from. Cut the spin back at It's source and you end up with reduced spin on everything.

 

...And is the pulley that is on the alternator larger or smaller than the pulley in the box in the shed?

Smaller alternator pulley = higher alternator revs
Larger pulley at crank = higher alternator revs

A replacement battery cable to starter and/or a replacement neg cable can be had at AZ for, like, $8.

 

I'd be leary of the autozone cables. They're good for if you a want a decent product and don't have to any other place to go or time to wait on shipping. But these cables they carry are actually kinda flimsy.

When we were replacing them on my car I had to take one back to the shop because one of the flimsy lead ends snapped right off.

 

You are correct. An under drive pulley on the crank and a stock pulley on the alternator will create even less charging and more charging problems than if the smaller, under drive alternator pulley were left in place. Smaller crank pulley + bigger alternator pulley = slower rotation at alternator. Either run both under drive pulleys, or both stock pulleys.

Check the alternator connector that has the red and brown wires for looseness and oxidation. Replace it if necessary.
I had a very similar problem and I also run under drive pulleys. I replaced the alternator connector and cleaned all my battery wires and grounds under the hood really well. I also grounded the new connector (came with a ground wire) to the alternator bracket. All my electrical problems now are solved and the car runs beautifully - no stumbling, hesitation, rough idle, or flat spots in the power curve.

 

Run the tests here first: http://www.powermastermotorsports.co...lternators.pdf (page 2)

I have a digital volt meter plugged into my cigarette lighter. (Bought it at O'Reilly's for $5.) It works great for the most part. (it reads .2 volts lower than what is at the battery. So if the battery is 14.5 volts, the cigarette lighter will read 14.3 volts) But it has a red, yellow, green light, as well as digital readout, and it does the red, yellow, green when the car is on (monitoring alternator) and off (monitoring battery) automatically.

Two other things that need to be checked:
1) Base timing.
2) Idle RPM

Both of the above effect the minimum idle RPM. With my alternator at a stop light, I'll notice that above 650 RPM, the alternator works good. 700+ RPM no question about it, it's good......But if the idle drops below 650, the volts dive down low. (Probably why GM set the min RPM idle at 650 from the factory)

Shifting the car from Drive to Neutral will raise the RPM enough to bring the voltage back up to the accepted zone. You can't really tell looking at the dash volt gauge, but the cigarette meter tells the true results.

Turns out my timing was on 5° base (stock is 6° on the L98). So I bumped it a touch. That fixed most of the low RPM low voltage problem. Now I think I'm going to raise the min RPM idle to around 700 RPM. Do this when it's up to operating temp as the car tends to idle lower when it's fully warmed up. This is why you tend to see low low voltage during prolonged stop and go. Eventually getting that off idle acceleration jerkiness.

 

As far as I know, the idle is adjusted to a great degree by the ECM. You can set the minimum air by adjusting the screw at the throttle body with the AIC wire disconnected. I think that that should be set to 450 rpm. From that point on at idle the AIC opens up and feeds it more air. You are correct that prior to adjusting any of these, your timing must be set to the correct factory specifications, then adjust the AIC and check and adjust the TPS. However, faulty alternator wiring, or bad grownds can make your car act as if it has a bad alternator and that can result in stumbling, hesitation, and flat spots in the power curve.