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I have a 97 Ford Escort Wagon that I recently pulled out of winter storage. The first time I put the battery back in it and fired it up the check battery light came on the dash. I ran a few tests with a DVM and there is no voltage coming from the alternator. The car is completely running on the battery. I did some maintenance on it before putting it away for the winter last december and I always do a quick maintenance check of all fluids as well as doing a check of the voltage output from the alternator before storage and at the time it was putting out 13.4 volts. So between December and May it has gone from 13.4 volts to nothing. I checked the cables, grounds, batt clamps…everything seems fine, but I find it hard to believe that the alternator has just died from sitting. I removed it from the car this evening to inspect the brushes and those look to be in good condition as well. What else should I be looking at? I’ve watched Eric’s alternator diagnosis video , but I find a lot of the tips in that video are for a charging system that is still putting out voltage but not enough. I think the next step is to go get the alternator tested and rule that out.
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If you have the alternator off the vehicle. Spin it with a power drill and momentarily apply 12 volts to the rotor lead (one of the small terminals). It should begin producing power and the drill will load up. If not, the alternator or regulator is bad. If it tests good then you probably have a blown fuse on the car.
Check the tell tale light on the dash is functioning. Heard of Ford interlocking that to the alt somehow so the alt won’t function if it has failed.
Phil
Since the alternator is off the car.Have it checked at an
auto part store. check that the belt is tight and not slipping.13.4 V is a limp in charge voltage with engine running, should be 14 V + you might have a battery sensor that turns the battery light indicator on on the cluster to let you know that there is something wrong. My battery temperature sensor in my 1998 Plymouth Neon turned the cluster battery light on a few months ago. The thermistor inside the sensor had a connection break so the battery lamp came on. I bought a sensor for it but it’s a spare for the vehicle now as I was able to just solder the broken wire on the thermistor back together and it’s been working fine. My alternator voltage dropped to just over 13 V when the light was on and once I fixed the thermistor and re installed it the voltage output from the alternator jumped back up to 14.2 V +
I don’t know whether your vehicle has something similar or not but I’d be looking for something that monitors the battery or the output of the alternator and sends info to the proper computer that controls the voltage from alternator to the battery.
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