my alternator isnt charging my car. i dont want to just pull it off and take it to autozone or w/e to get it tested. would prefer to try things out first. so what reasons would there be?

 

are you sure its not the battery ? if the alternator isnt charging your car,most likely something inside has gone bad

 

If you have a test meter, you should be getting around 14 volts at the large red wire stud connection on the back of the alternator. One thing that could be bad (and is the likely culprit) is the internal voltage regulator. Look at the back, and through some slots in the case you should see a shiny metal which is the back of the regulator. The "other" wires that plug into the alternator, are actually plugging right into the regulator. Take a small screwdriver, touch it to the back of the regulator while also touching the screwdriver to the alternator case. That grounds the regulator and puts it into "full mode". If your alternator starts to whine from the load, and your voltage spikes up, then it's your regulator that's bad. It's about a $15 part, and it's up to you if you think you can rebuild the alternator. I've done quite a few, it's not that hard to do.

 

ok. ill check all of my connections first then ill try that. if that doesnt work ill pull it and bring it into kragen or autozone and get it tested

 

oh yeah. thank you for your help. any more suggestions wouldnt hurt

 

Alternators are know to fail....Duh

 

Haa, haa...funny one!
This would be the simplified answer to the question: An alternator stops charging when something with it goes bad.

 

dont forget to inspect the wires and the cable connections. ive seen people spend $200 for a new alternator just to find out it was a $10 wire that was corroded inside the insulation

 

that was the first thing i checked. took it to autozone and kragen and got it checked. ended up being bad. so im gonna replace it