Just got done installing a new 160 amp in my 92 lx. I turned to car on and let it run for about 4 minutes at idle in the garage, till the wife came out and yelled it was to late and way to loud. In that time the guage did not move at all. My old alternator died and the guage is very low and the battery light is on. Question is, should I still have noticed a increase in the guage in that short time?
alternator charging question
- Thread starter bear108
- Start date
there from if the alternator is working it will spin , thus producing power to the battery and then the guage would rise. Yes I undrstand all that, custome stang youjerk off.. I was asking for some help here, not your smart ass comments. let me slow it down for ya. Once Car is started, when can I expexct the battery light to go out and also watch teh voltage guage go back up. Thats is. A simple 5 minutes or 20 minutes or can't do it at idle would even have worked.
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
Guys - the alternator doesn't "put out" a certain number of amps. The load that's placed on the system determines what the alternator puts out - that is, its output is 'drawn' from it by the load. The system pulls on the alternator, it doesn't 'push' into the system. So, if you have a very tired battery that needs mucho charging, and you have every electrical function in the car turned on (headlights, highbeams, htr/a-c fan on high, electric cooling fans on, stereo on, engine ignition system, fuel pump, rear window defogger, windshield wipers, power windows - etc.) -- you'll be asking the alternator to supply enough current to deal with that. If it can't - doesn't have enough capacity - that's when it also draws on the battery. If it can, it does so and keeps the battery charged up for starts. Overtime, if the net draw is greater than the alternator can put out, it will pull the battery down until you begin to have problems - usually in the form of hard starts.
Don't know what kind of gauge you have in the car - some are ammeters, most are just voltage gauges. The idiot light is usually set up to measure whether the alternator is putting out current. Whether it's putting out enough current to keep up with the demand is another issue.
I would think that your alternator light and voltage gauge should have immediately worked properly upon installing the new alternator - IF a bad alternator is all that was causing your problems. Even if the battery voltage was low, if the alternator was working properly, it should have been putting out around 14.4V right from start up, and of course the ignition system and fuel pump were drawing current from it, as well as recharging the battery. If you cranked it up and the alt. light and gauge were as they were before the install, I think something is still wrong.
And there's absolutely no solution, short of hiring an attorney, to the problem of your wife telling you it's too late and too loud.
Don't know what kind of gauge you have in the car - some are ammeters, most are just voltage gauges. The idiot light is usually set up to measure whether the alternator is putting out current. Whether it's putting out enough current to keep up with the demand is another issue.
I would think that your alternator light and voltage gauge should have immediately worked properly upon installing the new alternator - IF a bad alternator is all that was causing your problems. Even if the battery voltage was low, if the alternator was working properly, it should have been putting out around 14.4V right from start up, and of course the ignition system and fuel pump were drawing current from it, as well as recharging the battery. If you cranked it up and the alt. light and gauge were as they were before the install, I think something is still wrong.
And there's absolutely no solution, short of hiring an attorney, to the problem of your wife telling you it's too late and too loud.
