I just put a Maxima alternator into my 87 GL a few weeks ago. Everything worked as expected until a few days ago. Now when I start my car, the red lights on my dash stay on(charge, egr, etc) and my voltage looks to be reading just the battery. If I rev the engine to 4000, or accelerate hard, it seems to "catch" the alternator, and it begins to charge as normal. The volt meter jumps back to normal operating range and stays that way as long as the car is running. If I shut it off the process starts all over again. Any ideas? I did swap the single pulley to the double, will check tightness in the morning.

That's normal alternator on its way out signs

Check the condition of the connector.  If that's all good then I'd guess the alts on it's way out too.

As already said, check all of the wiring. Check it well. What is happening is the alt is not seeing it's "excitation" voltage (what tells it to start charging) until you give it the revs. So either there is a problem with the wire supplying excitation, or the alt is starting to let go internally.

Edited April 9, 201411 yr by SmashedGlass

or the alt is starting to let go internally.

" "

Well spoob, I just bought the thing. Hopefully it's just the wiring.

or the alt is starting to let go internally.

You can always take the alt to a shop and have it tested, most times for free (Autozone, Advance, O'Reilly, etc) but I'd try a non-chain mech shop if possible even if they charge you a small fee. Explain to them in detail exactly what is happening.

If possible. take a compressed air can/nozzle to the back of the alternator and give it a good shot. I've found there to be 1M times more brush dust on the reman Maxima alternators than I EVER had on my stock EA82 alts. I've found the brush dust (which is conductive, think graphite) will short out the diodes and/or VR and only allow the thing to put out ~11V or worse, start pushing AC voltage (not good)

 

I'd say it's the alternator.

Also, did you use the old single V-belt pulley on the new alternator? Did you file down the spacer to maintain proper pulley alignment?

Pulley tight? Belts tight?

I don't think it's a reman. It's got numbers written on it with a paint pen like it was pulled off a parts car. But I'll try to blow it out tomorrow. I swapped back to my old alt for now.

 

And no I didn't file it down at all, could a slight misalignment be causing this intermittent issue though?

 

Yes the belts were tight.

No, the belts being 'misaligned' won't cause this. What they would do is make a lot of noise. The fact that it charges fine after the first time you rev the piss out of it = a problem with excitation voltage, as I stated earlier.

No, the belts being 'misaligned' won't cause this. What they would do is make a lot of noise. The fact that it charges fine after the first time you rev the piss out of it = a problem with excitation voltage, as I stated earlier.

Trudat !

Have a DVOM handy?

What the hell's a DVOM? Haha. Digital Volt O Meter??

What the hell's a DVOM? Haha. Digital Volt O Meter??

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Digital Volt and Ohms Meter

No, I've got a cheap one. just a needle for the readout

No, I've got a cheap one. just a needle for the readout

That still works, if you know how to read the scales properly.