Alt. starts working after delay of 2-3 minutes

BrokenSockets · Nov 2, 2010

Hey guys,

Start up the 96 XJ today for the drive to work and my voltage is low - reading just the battery voltage. I didn't have time to mess with it and it's ony 3 miles to work, so I kept driving. The Gen light came on in about 30 seconds. After 2-3 minutes, the voltage rose to normal over a period of about 3 seconds.

I have repeated this 3 times today.

The only thing I can think of is maybe being temp related because it did cool down last night, but it was cold like this for a couple of days last week too without this effect.

After the voltage comes back up, the Gen light does NOT go off.

Any ideas off the top?

souske · Nov 2, 2010

I have had a very similar problem lately. Cleaned up all the connections on the ALT and hosed it out with some electrical contact cleaner. Has been working great for me since.

SanDiegoOverland · Nov 2, 2010

BrokenSockets said:
Hey guys,

Start up the 96 XJ today for the drive to work and my voltage is low - reading just the battery voltage. I didn't have time to mess with it and it's ony 3 miles to work, so I kept driving. The Gen light came on in about 30 seconds. After 2-3 minutes, the voltage rose to normal over a period of about 3 seconds.

I have repeated this 3 times today.

The only thing I can think of is maybe being temp related because it did cool down last night, but it was cold like this for a couple of days last week too without this effect.

After the voltage comes back up, the Gen light does NOT go off.

Any ideas off the top?

just had this issue. for me after a week or so, I had to tap it to get the voltage to go back up (the alternator, I mean).

After another week the tapping would only bring it up for a couple miles and then the voltage would go back down.

I was told and also support that this points to worn out brushes inside the alternator. Rather than futzing with an old, worn out alternator, I just replaced the whole thing.

Fixed my issue completely.

Here's the link to my thread. Check out the discussion:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1046321

Cheers
-Brian

kastein · Nov 2, 2010

Could also be your belt, make sure it's tight enough that it isn't slipping. Should be easy to check, just look at the alt pulley with a flashlight, if it is spinning you can discount this theory.

BrokenSockets · Nov 2, 2010

Belt is tight, pulley is turning. I will clean the connections and try the contact cleaner.

Alt. starts working after delay of 2-3 minutes

BrokenSockets

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souske

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SanDiegoOverland

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kastein

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BrokenSockets

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