Before you give your car a complete lobotomy, you really need to rule out your stock gauge and/or wiring system (possibly giving you a mis-reading). With a helper in the car, and idling in gear, put a digital gauge on the alternator and see what the reading is, then check voltage at the battery.

 

Well the gauge is off by almost one full volt. When the gauge reads exactly 13 volts, the actual reading on a voltmeter is 13.90-13.95. And honestly I'm not sure it hasn't always been off like that. This problem of it going in the red has just started in the last 2 weeks. Is there any way to get the gauge in the car more accurate? One volt higher would at least keep it out of the red, but it still seems there's more of a problem here since it just started doing it.

 

Do you have the 140amp. alt.

 

OK I have only read the first page here but I have an idea, Follow the ground from the fans to the chassis. If the ground is bad the fans will do one of 3 things. One they will not work. but they are so the second is more likely which is the fans are "finding" a ground at another location and that other location could be the ALT trigger wire which would be the reason your alternator shuts down when the fans are on. And third one of the fans has shorted windings which will make that fan have lower resistance than it should and that will draw more amps from the battery, stressing the alternator. You can find this out by unplugging one of them, try and see if it does the same thing, then unplug the other (plugging in the first) and see if it does it again. If there is no change with one or both fans unplugged then remove the fan relay and see what happens. If it is the same issue then start checking for burnt or chaffed wiring. If one of these solves the problem then check for bad wiring related to the circuit you are looking at.

You can get replacment fan motors are your local autopart store if it is the motors for alot less than $150 and they usually come with a lifetime warranty.

Massey

 

Along with what Massey said. Motor windings can short out, or fan bearings wear out and create more drag. Electric motors, due to their nature, will draw more current in order to maintain speed. Power to the fans is through a fusible link. Unlike fuses which are rated to protect equipment, fusible links are rated to protect the wiring to the load from going on fire, which is quite a bit higher than what the fan motors draw. So you could have a bad fan motor and nothing will blow. The other possibility is that the fans were bad enough to melt the link, and the link was replaced with a piece of plain wire, or a higher rated link, and eventually you will have an electrical fire.