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Alternator Swap Problem


DarkDragon
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Did this happen right after you replaced the alternator? I ran my truck with the alternator disconnected before and it didn't do that. All it did was run with the Battery and A/T Oil Temp light on.

 

yup. today idled 11.3v, revved it and charges to 15.09v. try to drive and the a/t temp light and oil light goes on and stumbles. when it warms up to temp, it revs up smoothly w/o misfire.

 

i thought i kicked something loose, but i traced everything that i was near. so i am stuck and may pay 90bux at an electronic shop to diag the path.

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toss that junk or bring it back for a refund

go to a junkyard and get a real maxima alternator and have that rebuilt

 

just curious

which alternator did you buy exactly?

Edited by Tungsten
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If your pathy was running fine before you changed the alternator, check your intake hose from the MAF to the throttle body. I'm sure you had to remove it to replace your alternator, so you might not have put it back on right or it might have a crack in it from moving it. Also I agree with everyone else, you got a crap rebuild. It should charge at idle too. Bring that thing back!

James

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If your pathy was running fine before you changed the alternator, check your intake hose from the MAF to the throttle body. I'm sure you had to remove it to replace your alternator, so you might not have put it back on right or it might have a crack in it from moving it. Also I agree with everyone else, you got a crap rebuild. It should charge at idle too. Bring that thing back!

James

-was not running properly. on occasion it would just stall out. did an alt load test and failed.

-i have after market intake setup. no need to remove it. it was easier from the bottom anyways.

-2 crap rebuilds that did the same thing. except this one did not fail the test. kinda hard to get 2 ****** alts

-today it did the same. when reved up it charged then it stayed at 14.5v at idle.

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I don't think it is all that hard to get 2 bad alternators. But the tester should tell you whether it is good or not. If the tester says it is good then it is worth looking for other problems.

I think people should make a habit of testing new alternators before they even leave the store. It's ridiculous how many of them fail. Then you have to go back and have it tested and then argue with the cashier for a new one..

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I had issues with my wiring harness when i swapped in a quest alty. The higher amperage melted the fusible link that comes off the battery positive post. I just ran a new 4 gauge wire from the alty to the batt. That cleared up that problem. as far as the running rough, the fact that your voltage went up to 19v is concerning, dont want to scare you but it may have burned out a sensor somewhere. Other than that as far as both problems go check that you have good grounds.

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I had issues with my wiring harness when i swapped in a quest alty. The higher amperage melted the fusible link that comes off the battery positive post. I just ran a new 4 gauge wire from the alty to the batt. That cleared up that problem. as far as the running rough, the fact that your voltage went up to 19v is concerning, dont want to scare you but it may have burned out a sensor somewhere. Other than that as far as both problems go check that you have good grounds.

The quest has a 4 gauge wire from the alt to the junction box by the battery so yes thats what you need.

James

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Think I got it fixed. Had to purchace a new 95 path alt. Everything was charging as it should. I got my refund on the max alt, and used that to purchase the path alt.

 

So looks like I cannot do the swap in my path unless I get a smaller pulley made for the maxima alternator.

 

Tony R.

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bringing this back up as i still have the same problem. WTF is this. a 3rd alternator not working. and this one is for a 95 path.

 

WTF, WTF, WTF.....

 

please help, i am lost and getting ready to sell if i cant figure it out. pritty much putting money on it if i cant even drive it from here to the store without it stalling out.

 

thanks,

tony

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Thats the nature of the beast. Sometimes if something goes, its not the part that went that was the original problem. Sometimes its something that made the part go belly up in the first place. Thankfully for you its only an annoying problem that isn't extremely expensive. I've heard other horror stories of people losing transmissions and just replacing them with new units, then finding out the new unit does the same thing not very long down the road because they failed to find the origin of the problem. At least its only an Alternator. I know this isn't extremely helpful, but try and consider the fact that you're driving a 16 year old vehicle and its bound to have things go wrong from time to time. Although they are nuisances, Your going to be hard pressed to find other vehicles of the same vintage without their own set of problems.

 

Think of it in a positive way to keep a cool head if you can. You are now positive, its not an Alternator problem and you can focus your efforts in different solutions. I personally haven't got a clue, but just wanted to post so that you don't just say, "F*** IT!" and sell it, go thru all that trouble and find something else with it's own bag of issues.

 

Good luck. Keep us posted if you track it down.

Edited by Dowser
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I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it's not the alty that's the problem. I've gotten DOA parts before but three in a row seems a little suspicious. Check the connections?

 

did that. going to rewire the chraging system and remove the fuse links from the battery. let see what happens then. will post an update on monday. going to try this tomorrow.

 

tony.

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Update-

 

Ok, I bought an alternator wiring kit as it was cheaper than just buying individual wires. I removed the fuse links from the battery port and added a multiple 14ga wires where it needed to be. I ran the 4ga wire from the battery with the 80a fuse directly in line with the dual white wire at the back of the alternator. The charging system works a little better. Max voltage is 14.46 alone, with the lights on, or the heater fan on. When everything is on and makes a full load and put the Path into drive, the voltage dips into 12.8v and the car starts to stumble.

 

I know in the FSM, the white/black wire from the battery goes to a circuit breaker. Anyone knows where this is located.

 

Here is a sketch of what I copied to what I have done and some numbers for your information.

 

Any other help would be much appreciated as this did not fix my problem. It just placed a band-aid.

 

Tony R.

 

diagram.jpg

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I know from reading your post that you've tried multiple alternators but just read on another forum someone having same problem as you (Lexus) and dealer said it was alternator or battery, the owner had the alternator load tested and it failed (after testing ok in store), he replaced the alternator again and it solved his problem. Any chance you can take the alternator to an auto electric shop instead of having it tested at an auto parts store??

 

Did the alternator harness you bought replace all the wiring that was stock? Years ago I was having issues with voltage readings with an aftermarket 160 amp alternator and the manufacturer told me to run a wire from the alternator sense wire straight to the battery and that fixed my problem.

 

Also I read in the other forum they were asking the owner having the problem what his idle RPM's were, they were saying if the RPM's were set lower than what they were supposed to be when the car was put into drive the RPM's may be too low causing the voltage to be low and causing the stumble?? They had suggested cleaning the butterfly in the TB and the MAF sensor.

 

Have you checked the output of the alternator directly at the alternator? clip your positive lead directly onto the stud on the back of the alternator and put the ground wire anywhere and see what the voltage is.

Edited by ahardb0dy
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Does the stumbling happen only when the engine is cold? or does it also happen after the engine is good and warm and water temp needle is up off the bottom of the gauge?

 

does it when it warms up. no it's not the o2, i changed that as well. plus, with the bad o2 the car would just stall out from idle. it currently idles for about 20-30 minutes before i go into drive and then it starts to stumble.

 

 

know from reading your post that you've tried multiple alternators but just read on another forum someone having same problem as you (Lexus) and dealer said it was alternator or battery, the owner had the alternator load tested and it failed (after testing ok in store), he replaced the alternator again and it solved his problem. Any chance you can take the alternator to an auto electric shop instead of having it tested at an auto parts store??

 

Did the alternator harness you bought replace all the wiring that was stock? Years ago I was having issues with voltage readings with an aftermarket 160 amp alternator and the manufacturer told me to run a wire from the alternator sense wire straight to the battery and that fixed my problem.

 

Also I read in the other forum they were asking the owner having the problem what his idle RPM's were, they were saying if the RPM's were set lower than what they were supposed to be when the car was put into drive the RPM's may be too low causing the voltage to be low and causing the stumble?? They had suggested cleaning the butterfly in the TB and the MAF sensor.

 

Have you checked the output of the alternator directly at the alternator? clip your positive lead directly onto the stud on the back of the alternator and put the ground wire anywhere and see what the voltage is.

 

1- new battery and new alternator. took the new alternator back to advance and it passed. cant find anyone local to do this alt load test.

2- no, i just added a 4ga wire from the battery to the stud on the alternator with a 80a maxi fuse. i did however, removed all the fuse links from the battery area and ran multiple 12ga wire in place of the fuselinks. kinda looks like fuselinks.

3- i thought it was low rpms, but no one makes a smaller pulley to spin the alternator faster. it idles as 1150rpms. the tb and the maf has been cleaned out back in early october.

4- voltage is 14.53v. turn on the light or the heater and it stumbles. voltage drops dramaticlly to 12.9v and the car shuts off. if i keep everything off, and try to drive the car, its all good. no problem. going to have to move to a tropical place where the sun is out 24-7 so i wont have to turn on the lights or the heater. :)

Edited by DarkDragon
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Weird that it would drop that quickly, and go that low. Maybe get the battery tested? When the battery in my dad's TR4 went out the voltage varied by how fast the engine was going. The headlights would actually get brighter when you hit the gas.

 

I'm afraid the only place the sun's out 24-7 is in the arctic, and that's only half the year. Tropics sound good though. :D

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Weird that it would drop that quickly, and go that low. Maybe get the battery tested? When the battery in my dad's TR4 went out the voltage varied by how fast the engine was going. The headlights would actually get brighter when you hit the gas.

 

I'm afraid the only place the sun's out 24-7 is in the arctic, and that's only half the year. Tropics sound good though. :D

 

 

did a battery load test as well on the new battery just to cover my muddy feet. the test came back as a "GOOD" battery.

 

as moving to the arctic, it defeats the porpuse, as i have a to turn the heater on.

 

if i cant figure it out by saturday i am going to trade it in for a new dealer car. i looked at my chart for maintenance and repairs, and i spend a little over 4k on just parts.

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If you didn't replace the 'sense" wire I would run a new wire from the alternator to the battery, the "sense" wire lets the alternator know what the battery voltage is so it can adjust accordingly. If it's not getting a correct reading it may not respond when yu turn on accessories or raise the RPM's. I think it is the white wire in the plug, I would attach a new wire using a scotchlok connector near the alternator plug and attach it to the positive terminal and see if that helps.

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I think it is the white wire in the plug, I would attach a new wire using a scotchlok connector near the alternator plug and attach it to the positive terminal and see if that helps.

 

tried that today along with a new maf. also put the stock intake kit back in. still no luck.

 

anything else. oh yeah, took it to an electronic shop and they charged me 90bux to tell the maf was bad. yes on limp mode it drove fine, but as soon as i turned on the lights, it stalled.

 

any suggestions?

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