I spent pretty much the entire summer tying to troubleshoot a problem with a battery draw on the Camaro. In the process I installed a new 1wire alternator. Last week, when driving the Camaro on it's last trip before storing it (I thought) the alternator belt broke for unknown reasons. After replacing the belt, the battery does not seem to be holding a charge. I have checked (twice) and retightened the belt to make sure everything is done properly. It appears that when I turn on the blower/heater is when the volt guage starts to sink. I'm wondering if there isn't something wrong with the new alternator? If I drive the car for a couple of miles with the blower on by the time I get home I'm at about 8-9 volts on the guage and the car will not restart after turning it off. Not sure what else it could be but a fault alternator? Any suggestions? Appreciate any insight as always.

 

Did you throw a test meter on the alternator yet to see what it's putting out? That will tell you. If that checks out, then test at the battery to make sure voltage is getting to it. Are you running stock pulleys or under-driven ones?

 

I checked everything out with the multimeter and it's definitely not charging. Have no idea why it sheared the belt last week, it was a new belt beginning of summer. Ever since, it's not charging the battery after the new belt installed. Anyway, I called Summit and they are going to warranty it for me! I was worried because I bought the alternator June 1 to use on the new engine setup and luckily (I guess now) I needed it before then. Otherwise, I woulda been out $150 by the time I would've found out next year that it was bad. Sending it back for a new one on Monday. Thanks for the reply '69, sometimes I'm quick to post before thinking it through. Guess I had a hard time thinking the brand new alternator could be bad after it worked perfect for a month.

 

It can happen, new doesn't always mean no problems. You just got a defective one.

 

It seems to be the luck I'm going to have re-doing this Camaro. I'm not one for naming my rides but if I had to it would definitely be Murphy (as in the law.) Thanks again for the reply.

 

Hello again and happy holidays to all! Been a while since I've been on here or done anything to the Camaro. Had a mishap at a salvage yard and cut my right hand pretty bad and a couple fingers still dont want to work very well. I had sent the new alternator back and reinstalled the next new one and still having the same problems! I have a hard time believing that I got two defective alternators in a row. I put a multimeter on the battery today after the car has sat for over a month and shows just over 12v. Car will not turn over but still have some power. After I jumpstart it, meter shows 12.8v. I drove the car and it held charge fine. Turned it off and it will not restart. If I turn the lights or heater on, volt guage drops to 8v. New alternator, new starter and battery at beginning of summer, new belts also. Just don't understand whats going on. I've had a problem with the car not wanting to start until the starter cools down after driving for a bit, and that's with stock exhaust manifolds. Not sure if it has anything to do with that? I dont want to go buying new batteries or starters if that's not the problem but I also want this fixed before the new engine gets installed. Any ideas on this? I'd much rather be posting pics of progress on the tear down/rebuild but need this issue resolved first. Thanks very much in advance.

 

sounds like the alternator is bad. Most autozones or pepboys will test it for free.

 

Start the engine, then pull the positive battery terminal. If it keeps running the alternator is good. If it dies your alt. is bad.

 

Alternator is good. Pulled the pos cable (had forgotten about that, thanks) and it stayed running fine. I let it run for over 20 minutes and volt guage was showing almost 14v. I put multimeter on the battery again while it was running and got 12.9v. Battery holding a charge but no cranking amps maybe?

 

Time to take the battery to Autozone and have it tested under load. Back in my younger days I replaced 3 alternators in a 70 Mustang before I found out that the battery was bad and was killing the alternator. A new battery and another alternator and it fixed my problem.