2nd alternator replacement and it still doesn't work
 

I just put in my 2nd alternator tonight and this one is worse than the last. I changed the original alternator with 108K because the bearing was screeching, but charged great. I bought a bran new, not rebuilt one from Advance, and that didn't chrage above 11 volts. So rather than wait another week, I bought a rebuilt one to try. This one was worse than any. It was charging at 10 volts, then got worse and worse. So bad that the car died in 20 minutes. What the hell is with these things? Is this the norm? Is there any alternator that works? I was going to try a Delco, but any other experience with similar problems will help............

Check all the grounds. Could just be the battery cable ground where it attached ot the chassis is coroded. Mine was having a charging problem hanging at the edge of the red on the gauge all the time. after I cleaned up the ground really well and reinstalled it voltage went to 13+ volts at idle.

checked it, and is good......the alternator is hot after a short time too

theres a little red or black wire (depending on the year) that hooks in to the top of the alt....if this plug or wire is bad your alt. will NOT charge your battery, ive fixed issues on cars like this...that little plug is pretty fragile...give it a check

Can someone post a pic of this plug with wire?

i dont have a pic, but its just a single wire (16 ga ? ) with a female spade end, should come out of that main harness right there by where the coolant temp sensor is

thats def. the prob. because there were no wires on that plug. I thought that it was a dummy plug because the alt. was used for other apps.

Thanks Alot........hope I find it to fix it......

:lol: if you didnt have that last time either, that probably was the problem to

yep, it was. LOL.....Everything is fixed and working as it should now.......thanks again

dont mean to jack this thread but maybe someone who reads or has read this can help me, posted a new thread and got nothing but ''buy a new alternator'' and that doesnt help me to well cuz the NEW alternator is whats giving me problems, i think it might be my connections on the + battery terminal, and after reading this thread im gonna check that little wire coming off the top of the alternator, but heres my problem, cold start my car and volts are right at 3/4 of the way up, starts to warm up and the volts drop down to around 14volts (seems normal to me) but when i stop, or at idle, the volts start to jump around, up down and so on, BUT sometimes the volts dont jump around at all...the alternator i got is a powermaster 150amp alt, car is a 01 trans am....any help would be awesome...and forgot to mention the battery to alt cable is now 2gauge, what others, if any, do or should i upgrade?