rat123

Hi
My alternator is acting up I think. The volt meter will read 11.5 to 12.0 when running and when I give the gas a shot it goes up to 13.8 to 14.3 and stays there and I'm told that is normal. One day everything died on me. I was thinking alternator was shot. I did put a battery charge on battery to get it back to 12.5 . Before I give it a shot it did go down to 10.5 volts one day and it went back up to normal. I have started up the car a few times and all seems back to normal again. What can be causing me this problem
thanks

jv9999

I'd have them both tested. Most auto parts stores will do it for free.

Cliff Harris

I had a problem with my alternator. I would be driving and it would sometimes charge and sometimes not charge. It turned out to be a bad connection inside the alternator. I took it apart, cleaned everything and reassembled it and it has been fine since then.

MRPVette

also if you buy a new alternator have them test it before you leave the store I got a bad one righr out of the box o I had to do the job twice.

crowz

Im going to change the alternator pulley to fix mine conking out at idle. I don't remember 86 coupe doing this. But the 87 convertible I just bought wont charge at idle.
600 to 650 rpms and no charge. 700 to 750 it goes back to charging perfect. Seeing so many post in so many places with people saying its the norm Im just going to change the pulley size a bit to solve it for good. I will post what I go with whenever the weather gets decent here and I fix it.

Cliff Harris

I got a bad one right out of the box too. On the next one I had them test it in the store before I took it. They told me that getting a bad one is not all that unusual.

The only bad part of this was that I had to order another alternator. They told me that if the original one was not bad then I would have to pay for the new one.

70ZZ3 96LT4

I took my 1985's original alternator to a local shop because I could not replace the front bearing. The bearing was not an easy removal for the shop owner, he let me watch the whole procedure. With the time and difficulty he had in replacing the front bearing and the cost of both bearings it was very reasonable.