alternator issues.

[fattie]

on one of my 93's that my grandfather drives i have a problem with the battery dying. hes had the battery replaced under warrenty 4 times, and i told him it was the alternator. he thought it was a short somewhere. he tested it himself and it failed. brought it to autozone and it passed. what could be the issue here? thanks

[WmWatt]

Connections?

[fattie]

Connections?

possibly. its raining today or we would be working on it. he broke the bolt off inside the alternator from the parts car , DOH!

[jglutz]

The AutoZone testers have a switch that the employee activated....in the first position..it passes all Autozone batteries....in the other position it fails all other batteries....Just Kidding.

Most important question is how does the battery fail:
1) Does the car runn normally except when you try to start it...it's just out of snot?
2) Does the car have problems running...Battery idiot light on?

If 1) Leak in the circuits somewhere draining the battery...most likely not the alternator.

If 2) Alternator (or belt), Battery, Bad Connection.

I've seen a situation where the starter/solenoid had excessive flyback (that's a high voltage spike when turned off) that would eventually destroy the battery plates...voltage reading are good but the curent capacity has been lost.

Best bet and simplest to do....if the car has a hard time starting...take a jumper cable and jump the battery negative to the engine block. only one cable is required.
If the car starts...follow the battery negative cable to the other end and clean up the connection.

[Kraig]

Mine had an issue like this and it was just corroded wiring connections....