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NEED Help Bad Bat or ALT going..??

S

Silverstreak01

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Hometown, NE PA
hey all.. need some quick tech.. heres the breif story. my jeep was sitting for about 2 weeks and was hard starting.. took a short trip turned it off turned it back on everything ok. sits for another 4 hours. driving my cd player starts turning off and on.. didnt think anything of it maybe a loose wire or something.. but i park come out . DEAD wont start.. i get jumped go to autozone DeAD again. put a new battery (optima yellow top) starts right up.. the volt gauge kicks to a line below half.. goes a while then right back down to zero.. but i can shut the truck off and start back up and it goes up again..
o yea and my check gauges light is on..
Is my alternaternator going?
i know mine went in my old jeep and you could jump start it go abou 500feet and the whole truck would stop!

am i ok to drive it or will it leave me screwed !

thank YOU !
 
best/easiest way to check if its the alt... charge battery, start jeep, remove battery posts... see if it runs, if it does, your alt is ok and generates enough voltage/power to run... if it dies... go to your parts place.... and get a new one:p thats what i would do.
 
will i be ok running it on just the battery . or is that a big no no? i JUST want to know if its ok to drive ? is the only way to test it is dq the battery while its running?
 
Last edited:
If your voltmeter reads less than 14 volts, it's most likely the alternator. You can get better data if you check voltage at the battery.
 
Silverstreak01 said:
hey all.. need some quick tech.. heres the breif story. my jeep was sitting for about 2 weeks and was hard starting.. took a short trip turned it off turned it back on everything ok. sits for another 4 hours. driving my cd player starts turning off and on.. didnt think anything of it maybe a loose wire or something.. but i park come out . DEAD wont start.. i get jumped go to autozone DeAD again. put a new battery (optima yellow top) starts right up.. the volt gauge kicks to a line below half.. goes a while then right back down to zero.. but i can shut the truck off and start back up and it goes up again..
o yea and my check gauges light is on..
Is my alternaternator going?
i know mine went in my old jeep and you could jump start it go abou 500feet and the whole truck would stop!

am i ok to drive it or will it leave me screwed !

thank YOU !
Click to expand...
You didn't by chance go through some deep dirty water did you????
 
sounds to me like just a dead battery. if the battery dies under load(while the motors running) the alternator will generate enough juice to run the motor. a lot of radio units cut off if their input voltage drops too low-it's a safety feature. if the battery is dissconnected (changed out), the check engine light will flash and if you check the codes; it will tell you that the battery has been disconnected within the last 50 starts. the new battery is just charging fully; they are not kept on a charger on the store shelf.
 
xuv-this said:
sounds to me like just a dead battery. if the battery dies under load(while the motors running) the alternator will generate enough juice to run the motor. a lot of radio units cut off if their input voltage drops too low-it's a safety feature. if the battery is dissconnected (changed out), the check engine light will flash and if you check the codes; it will tell you that the battery has been disconnected within the last 50 starts. the new battery is just charging fully; they are not kept on a charger on the store shelf.
Click to expand...
If......error message
 
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Story:
no i havent drove through any deep puddles latley.. but there is very poor dranage on ocean drive and when it rains the puddles are huge.. ITs the alternator ! last night i ran into town to the mini mart and on my way back out here my radio died so i shut that off. my lights dimmed to nothing. and everytime i turned my headlights on the thing would want to stall out.
i barely and i mean barely made it back into a parking space got the window up and it died..

Questions:
How hard/ easy are they to change out? (never done one - but i have a fully stocked shop to use)
is auto zone the best place (price wise) ? what do i look for ( i want a heavy duty one) they have a gaurentee though..

is a mean grean (360$ in qaudratec) worth the mean grean?


thanks again
keith (i cant win) herring
 
oops. i was wrong and it was the alt. searched for ya' and found this:
gptherezonlyone said:
1. That Nippondenso powers everything I got and you name it that is 12 volt and it is on there. I do run 2 1000 CCA batteries but I know to not run the AC and 5 pair of Hella 500's and the 130 watt H4s all with the stereo turned all the way up and the windsheild wipers going at the same time.
2. That mean green alternator looks the best but at an idle is where the difference should be and it is not. At an idle your 120 amp alternator puts out about 50 amps and there's will do 65 amps at idle and 150 amps highway. Not worth $409 to me.
3. a. The alternator from late 96 will work through 2001. Somewhere in that year was there change over. I have a 9/96 that is everything a 2001 is, electronically.
b. I would not trust that gauge on that older style dash or any dash, they are just to ballpark for me. I would have the 96 tested and leave the 99 alone and maybe upgrade your battery.
Click to expand...
heres a little secret: grand cherokees of similar (don't know exact) years used the same style alternator. if you buy a (cheaper than mean green) "performance alternator" all it is is the oem from a gc with a v8-around 130 amps or so(xj's are around 95 amps i think) since it won't run anyway, i would take it off, go to autozone, and tell them it is a later model gc, and buy the alternator that looks like yours.
 
yup. v-8 with the towing package. a v8 has 2 more cylinders, so it requires more spark/juice. i went through this on my 95'; i bought a "performance rebuilt" alternator for mine, turns out thats all that it was.
 
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