charging system problem

6Stang7

New Member
Jun 1, 2003
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Livermore, CA
so, i was driving back from the gf house one night and on my way home i noticed that all of my lights went dim a little bit. when i looked at the volt gauge i saw it was at 12V. ok, so the reg or alt went out i figured. when i was about a block or so home, i saw that the volt gauge jumped back to 14V+. so the next day when i start it, it's back at 12V. i when and looked around and saw that one of the wires that hooked up to that alt was frayed and hand about 2 copper wires holding it on. i figured this was what was wrong. i bought a new alt AND new wiring harness, put both on, and started the car up. still read 12V. so i put a new volt reg on (the new style, not the old mech. type) and it still read 12V. i did notice a small fuse on the fuse block that was burnt, but other then that i am totally lost on what could have happened. any ideas?
 
Try measuring voltage at output of the alternator, then work your way back to the battery. Put the ground (common) lead of the voltmeter at the negative post of the battery then move it to a ground source on the body to see if the voltage changes, which would mean a bad ground source or cable.

A lot of things could cause voltage drops, you just have to try and isolate possible causes, otherwise you could go nuts by just replacing everything.

Maybe a worn belt?