Charging issues?

[Illogical]

Hey guys, I've been rarely posting and mostly just reading on here for a while, but now I need some help with my little 1991 GL. I'm now on the 2nd new alternator for the car, and it still has some trouble keeping the car going. Well, with this one, I can jump-start the car and it'll run without much issue until it's shut off. Then, it won't start again unless it gets a jump. Plus, the charge light will flicker on if using more than one light at a time (i.e. headlights are on, and press the brake pedal, or the hazard lights). I'm guessing there's a short somewhere, but where can I start looking? No fuses have popped, or anything 'easy' like that. Also, it has a new cap, rotor, plug wires, spark plugs, fuel filter, and air filter, but it was doing this problem before any of that also.

Thanks!

[packrat427]

Hopefully the new alt. has a lifetime warranty , if it is that .. so you won't be out more $$

Take it off and have it checked at a parts store , they can tell if it is bad .
2nd , the alt. will never fully charge a battery and is very hard on a alt. to try to charge a battery that has been dead , even if it was jump started .

I would charge the battery for at least 12-18 hours .
You may even have a bad cell in the battery , that will not hold a charge and is bringing down the rest of the battery .
That will make the alt . work harder also .. trying to charge a battery that won't take a charge .

Walmart batteries are bad for this , not sure what kind you have .
Last thing , double check your grounds .

[Illogical]

Cool, thanks for the tips! I got this alternator under the warranty for the 1st one I put in, so if that's the case, I know I'm still covered. The battery was charged up by Autozone (which is where I bought it too) before I put it in the car, so it should be okay. Electrical stuff has never been my forte...how do I check the grounds?

[LittleHoe]

what you describe really sounds like a bad battery. Make sure all your battery cables are clean and connected tightly and make sure the ground from the battery to where ever it goes is in good shape. I would take the car or at least the battery back to autozone and have them load test it. I think they do that for free.

[gdawgs]

I'm sure this isn't your problem, but it's kind of interesting. My brother used to have a Geo Metro(don't worry, he used to drive a Festiva too), and he installed a new audio system. There was something wrong with the amp that caused it to chew through alternators. Although it worked just fine as far as the audio system went. Anyway, when the original alternator went out, he took it too a shop where they installed a lifetime guarenteed one(including labor). About every 4 or 5 months, the alternator went out, so he took it back and they replaced it for free. After about the fifth one, they told him that there was something wrong with the car and they couln't figure out what it was. They installed one last alternator and told him that if it goes out again, bring it back and they would give him his money back. But if he wanted a new alternator installed he'd have to go somewhere else to get it done. He removed the amplifier, and never had another problem.

[scitzz]

Seems to me that the problem could very easily be that the alt belt is not tight enough after the install. While the battery may have been killed by the previous bad alt, most likely the belt is not tight enough, which would account for the flickering charge light. Deflection should be NO MORE than 1/2 inch if I am not mistaken. Tighten that bad boy up a lil, and see what happens.
Also, in my experience, the festy needs so lil to start, that a half way decent battery, drained down, only needs a few minutes of running time to charge enough to start the car.