Electrical charging issues

[shortystowing]

Okay, I thought I had found the issues, but today says otherwise...

1988 Festiva

Here is what I can tell from playing with it, but most of my tools are in storage and can't get there until I get a running car... YEAH!!!

It runs off of the alternator, found this out by cruising down the road, shut off motor when I noticed it was slow to restart and the gauges or nothing else would work, still rolling down road, bumped clutch and it started right up. drove it home, turned it off, charged up battery and it starts just fine. It has ran for the last couple days and has been spinning the starter slower every time I start it. So I know the battery is holding a charge, alt is working, electrical from alt is getting to the ignition to run accessories, voltage is getting from battery to ignition to run accessories, but the Alt wont charge the battery at ALL.

Is there a fuseable link between the battery and alt in the wiring harness or fuse block? Also, is there a downloadable version of the FMS for the electrical system? Or could I be lucky and this be something someone has gone through and already knows the problem(not likely knowing my luck)?

Can I just remove the wire from the ALT and put a jumper directly from the ALT to the battery? would the accessories still get powered this way?

Thanks in advance,
Shorty

[GenevaDirt]

your battery is running your car....you charged it and it runs....but is slowly loosing its power...if you were driving at night I am sure the battery would be dead much faster. Your alt is not putting out enough power to charge the battery and run the car too. Could be a loose belt or you may need a new alternator. If you take it to Autozone they can/will test it for free.

[RobJo]

Charging Issue

Every couple of years I need to tighten the belt to the alternator on my 88 LX. I check the voltage at the battery while the engine is running to see if I have at least 13 volts ( it's charging). A few years ago I had a mechanic change the belt and he put the wrong one on. And, after about a day the battery would finally give out and the engine would quit. I replace the belts myself now.

[shortystowing]

The car still ran just fine without the battery being hooked up... so the alt was working.

I found what I think could have been the reason, but not sure. I found that somewhere down the line, someone "repaired" the center fuseable link in the fuse block under the hood. The ends they used were flopping around loose. To me this explains why it would sometimes charge and not other times. I replaced it with the 30-40-30 fuses that push on and it started charging the battery, I drove it tonight about 26 miles with radio, fan, lights, and everything going. when I got home she started up like a charm... so I believe this is the problem the Po had with the car.

[MONSOON]

Cool, glad it was simple and relatively inexpensive to fix.

[GenevaDirt]

The car still ran just fine without the battery being hooked up... so the alt was working.

I found what I think could have been the reason, but not sure. I found that somewhere down the line, someone "repaired" the center fuseable link in the fuse block under the hood. The ends they used were flopping around loose. To me this explains why it would sometimes charge and not other times. I replaced it with the 30-40-30 fuses that push on and it started charging the battery, I drove it tonight about 26 miles with radio, fan, lights, and everything going. when I got home she started up like a charm... so I believe this is the problem the Po had with the car.

car could run fine but still not be putting out enough to charge the battery. If the center one was beaking contact the car would not start at all....I believe one of the other ones has something to do with charging....anyway....maybe by replacing all you have eliminated the problem.

[damac]

I was having some wierd issues like this on my 97 aspire a few weeks ago. And when I think back as far as power output and its drag on the system, I think my altnerator was slowly dying.

It eventually left me with one run that took the battery down and the charge light came on. I guess that light let me know it was dead, not just a low charge or loose belt, etc.

The only reason I was thinking the altnerator was dying a slow death is because when I installed the new one, I could not believe how much better the car was driving? From starting, to less burden on the engine when turning on the lights, etc.