Lesson learned

[Chobobulous]

When the alternator is not charging the battery, No lights come on. Ask me how I know lol.

[Gomez]

How do you know?

[Chobobulous]

Lol because I just had to walk 3 miles to get my other car.

I was driving home from the gas station. I thought its a nice night, ill just take the long way home. About a quarter of the way home I noticed my cluster lights were really dim. I thought maybe I bumped that switch, I tried pushing it up, it was all the way up. At this point I knew what had happened. It died and I coasted by two cops, with no lights of course, So they turned on their emergency lights and followed, slowly, after me. I coasted to a parking lot in the mall. And there she sits.

[jjk1224]

When my alternator took a dump I was about 100 miles away from home to visit a friend at school. My battery light on the dash popped on and I knew right away what had happened. I shut my radio off and drove to the nearest autozone (which was like 10 miles away from my location at the time). Once I got there I managed to get the alternator off with the tools I had in the trunk and had them test it. Sure enough, 0 output and they couldn't get one ordered for a few days. I was still about 50 miles from my destination at that point so but I decided to see how far I could get and possibly have my friend pick me up from where ever I stopped. After 15-20 more miles I stumbled upon a small hole in the wall auto parts store in the middle of BFE and decided it wouldn't hurt to see what they had. The lady at the counter informed me that they did not have the part, but to my surprise a local wreck yard reported having one on their online database. The yard was only a few miles back the way I had came but when I tried to start the car I could tell she didn't have much left in her. Once I got to the yard the guy behind the desk already had the alternator ready for me. He told me how it had been sitting on their shelf for years and came out of a car that was totaled with less than 30k miles. $50 later I walked out out, installed the part and when I tried to fire her up one last time, *click*, she had given up starting on that charge. I ran back inside, borrowed a battery jump box and I was on my way again. That was the luckiest I have ever been in regard to car related incidents. Figured I would share but anyway...

Does your cluster have a battery light? I can't imagine why it wouldn't turn on unless the bulb was burnt out or something.


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[bhazard]

You mean you couldn't push start a festy by yourself?

[Eaglefreek]

You mean you couldn't push start a festy by yourself?

When my battery died because I left my lights on, I could not get my Festiva to push start, either in first, second or reverse. Years ago, I had an 84 Mustang that had a bad starter and I could push start it very easily by myself, which I did for a week until I had money for a starter. .

[Chobobulous]

You mean you couldn't push start a festy by yourself?

I did try, But it was in gEar and rolling but not running.

[FB71]

warning lamp will come on if reg fails. Will NOT come on if brushes wear out. As far as the reg is concerned, its sending current to the rotor.

[Pu241]

You mean you couldn't push start a festy by yourself?

Brad, when your battery is dead no fuel pump and no fuel pressure = no start, no matter how much you push it!

[Chobobulous]

Thanks for listening I bet it's just the cold doing weird stuff to the electrical system. I boosted it this morning and had no problems all day.

[Chobobulous]

How do I check output on the alternator? Is there a fuse or something that the current must flow through?

[Movin]

These inexpensive amp meters work well for this. The two scales match the wire size on the back side, use one or the other. To check your alt put the meter on the wire that is on the stud coming out of the alt. With the car running and everything electrical turned on there should be an amp reading . If you rev the engine a little the reading should surge to more amps.