Voltage Issues

[zfinger]

97XJ 191K

I was wheeling the other night, and my volt meter dropped to 9 and everything got dim. The Jeep ran at 14V when I got it, and then slowly went down to 12ish over the past year.

So I replaced the altenator with a new one and put in a new Optima red top battery figuring that would kill 2 birds with one stone. But I'm still only at 12V, and with a volt meter on the battery running, I'm only at 13.3V, not 14.4V. I got the parts at VIP where I work, and the only altenator we had/can get is 90amps, and I was hoping to find one around 120amps.

Is the altenator the problem? Or is there some other reason my volt gauge in the cluster wont sit at 14V where it use to.

 

[87manche]

have you checked and cleaned all grounds?

 

[Matthew Currie]

After checking those grounds, make sure you check the voltage at the battery because the volt gauge in the cluster is not reliable.

 

[87manche]

that too, turning on my heater in my 87 causes a 2 volt drop on the gauge, but doesn't do anything significant at the battery.

 

[langer1]

97XJ 191K

I was wheeling the other night, and my volt meter dropped to 9 and everything got dim. The Jeep ran at 14V when I got it, and then slowly went down to 12ish over the past year.

So I replaced the altenator with a new one and put in a new Optima red top battery figuring that would kill 2 birds with one stone. But I'm still only at 12V, and with a volt meter on the battery running, I'm only at 13.3V, not 14.4V. I got the parts at VIP where I work, and the only altenator we had/can get is 90amps, and I was hoping to find one around 120amps.

Is the altenator the problem? Or is there some other reason my volt gauge in the cluster wont sit at 14V where it use to.

Thats a normal reading for a Optima, they recharge very easly a bigger ALT won't change a thing as far as re-charging, it only allow you to run more stuff.