Replaced Alternator, Died at Idle...
 

For about a week or so (shame on me) I had the alternator light come on in my 1987 3.2 with increasing frequency. Once the engine warmed and I was under power it tended to wane/disappear (this is in heavy stop-and-go SoCal traffic).

At last the radio cut out while driving home and I could feel a lack of power when accelerating. Nursed it home to the driveway where once turned off it would not restart.

I assumed (likely first mistake) that this was an alternator issue and replacing it would solve the problem. I ordered a BBB Industries 14892 Alternator (remanufactured) off of Amazon (possible second mistake) and swapped the alternators. I did have some trouble tightening the nut on the fan initially (the alternator post was also spinning as I tried to tighten the nut) but was able to work that out. The fan belt appears to be under good tension (all five shims outside) and not slipping.

I used a portable jump pack to jump the battery and get the car running. The battery is less than two years old and the terminals are clean. I was able to drive the car about five miles, though the alternator light continued to come on at idle. The radio again died at some point. Eventually the car died while idling at a stop light and I learned how easy 911s are to push.

Tonight I'm planning to grab a voltmeter and check outputs, but it seemed unlikely that a relatively new battery would be the issue. That being said, I'm not well versed in this, so I may be overlooking something.

Any ideas? Is there a good chance the replacement alternator isn't up to par? Other electrical system issues I should investigate?

Thanks all!

charge the battery.
check all major connections and clean. including the ground from the body to tranny
take the car to advance and let them check the system....for free.
did you connect the ground from the alt to the top of the engine

Thank you! I'll work on the battery and check the body-to-trans ground.

Alternator to engine ground was reconnected during alternator replacement so should be good on that front.

Is the voltage regulator separate on yours? When my alternator went, it was the regulator that was bad and I got that replaced. If your alternator can be sold separate from the regulator, you may have replaced the wrong part??

Put a meter on it to see what is really happening.

As I understood it, the regulator is built into the alternator (or at least attached to the alternator). I believe the remanufactured alternator was tested (came with a performance printout) so I assumed that the regulator was also functional but it's possible that wasn't the case. Meters all around...

Same thing happened to me on drive, car died about 30 miles from home. Had to get a tow home.
Agree with charge the battery completely first. You have been driving with a less than optimal alternator, so the battery is very likely almost dead. Then check everything else mentioned above.
I replaced my battery at the time, as it was 14 years old :eek:, and replaced the alternator also. No problems since.

Craig

I bought an amazon alt for ford f150 brand new but it was bad replaced with new from local parts 2 times as much money and problem solved

Thanks again all - connected a charger last night and used a jumper pack to turn the car over. No indications from the alternator light that I could see on the commute (~7miles and ~45 minutes), so provided the car starts and gets me home incident free this evening I think I might be good!

Good news, lets hope that solved it!
But, 7 miles in 45 minutes :eek:, man that sucks!

Craig

Check that the light does come on when the key is first turned to be sure the bulb isn't burnt out.