sweetjeep
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Massachusetts
Hey folks. I am having a very strange problem with my Cherokee. It's a 99 with a 4.0 in it. Which evidentally makes it weird because it's newer than a 98 and according to any generic lit. that makes it strange.
I digress..
The problem happens when it's particularly cold and never when it's warm. Warm being above about 45 degrees.
The problem:
I start the truck and all is lovely and well. Drive for a bit and the voltage fairly quickly drops from 14v to about 12v. No apparent reason, but it can be aggravated if I use more juice (headlights, heater on speed 2). It have never happened with out the headlights. I assume theur power draw is the reason. So the voltage drops and will typically sit there for a short period of time and then the voltage guage will suddenly drop off altogether and the idiot light comes on. The trucks keeps running but it's clearly on the battery.
Generally if I turn it off and then back on it will reset and be OK. But the problem is getting worse and frequently won't reset the system.
The alternator is a 2 year old junkyard alt (didn't solve the problem then, but it wasn't a huge issue then) and the battery is about a year old.
I asked the parts store and they seemed to think the regulator was part of the alternator and not neccessarily independantly serviceable.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Morgan
I digress..
The problem happens when it's particularly cold and never when it's warm. Warm being above about 45 degrees.
The problem:
I start the truck and all is lovely and well. Drive for a bit and the voltage fairly quickly drops from 14v to about 12v. No apparent reason, but it can be aggravated if I use more juice (headlights, heater on speed 2). It have never happened with out the headlights. I assume theur power draw is the reason. So the voltage drops and will typically sit there for a short period of time and then the voltage guage will suddenly drop off altogether and the idiot light comes on. The trucks keeps running but it's clearly on the battery.
Generally if I turn it off and then back on it will reset and be OK. But the problem is getting worse and frequently won't reset the system.
The alternator is a 2 year old junkyard alt (didn't solve the problem then, but it wasn't a huge issue then) and the battery is about a year old.
I asked the parts store and they seemed to think the regulator was part of the alternator and not neccessarily independantly serviceable.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Morgan