Scud

Hello all, I am new to this forum and hope that someone can shed some light on this subject.

I had a new alternator put in by a Nissan dealer last week only to have the internal regulator act up which made it charge intermittently and ultimately fail. I live 72 miles from the dealer and on the way home it stopped charging and left me stranded with a dead battery on the side of the road. I got towed to my house and the next day went and purchased a new (refurbished)alternator from my local parts store and installed it only to find that it is not charging at all. I charged my battery first to 12.4 Volts before attempting to start the vehicle because I know that trying to charge a dead battery with an alternator will fry the alternator.

I have it connected correctly but am at odds for why it is not charging. Could I have bought another faulty alternator? the chances are astronomical that two could be bad in one week. I feel that I, and the Nissan service department, are overlooking something. My local machanic mentioned that this particular model (1989 Hardbody 2.4 liter D21 4X4 pickup), has a fusible link.

My question, does anyone know the exact location of this fusible link? It is not on the side of the engine compartment as shown in my owners manual, could it be on the main wire from the alternator to the battery? What does it look like? Any ideas would be appreciated.

One more thing, when the dealer replaced the alternator last week my charging idiot light quit working on my dash. So now when I turn on my ignition but do not start my car the oil and seat belt light light up but not the charging system idiot light. I can see the original wiring harness connector hanging limp near the alternator, they must have had to chop it off in order to put on the connector for the new alternator, thereby rendering the idiot light non-functional. Anyway to get it to work again?

Thanks in advance,

Scud

 

veesix

You are right about the astronomical odds that both alternators have gone bad. I'll bet, you have two perfectly good alternators on your hands.

Advance Auto Parts will test your alternator for free, and it only take a couple minutes. Have you already tried this?

veesix

Scud

I had my local mechanic check it yesterday real quick and he said that it was ok, I was more concerned at the time with my battery being ok after being discharged so low.

veesix

Some auto parts stores will test the alternator right in the vehicle. This is different from the bench test, because it can help to locate the charging system problem. I have never used this service, so maybe it's not really that great. I might look into it just the same.

These are great trucks but they do require regular maintainance. A good number is between $75 to $150 per month. I try to keep mine running for $100/month. Considering that I have no auto loan interest to pay, and rock bottom insurance, and also that I get allot of enjoyment out it, the cost of ownership is very low. And when you are ready to get into another ride, you should at the least be able to get back what you originally paid for it, plus a few hundred more if it has been well maintained.

I might take that Nissan alternator, and the truck, and get it to the best local foreign car
mechanic in the area; or better yet, get the truck back to the dealership.

Scud

I love this truck, it only has 189,000 miles on it and has not given me any problems other then a new water pump and a thermostat. In fact, and I probably should not say this, but it has the original clutch still!

This alternator issue has me upset though, I can work on my motorcycle and fix anything on it but not my truck. If I could fix this I definetely would but maybe it will be a shop issue with the right equipment.

One more thing, could the fusible link be located inside the wire that leads to the alternator from the positive termnal on the battery? If it could be that simple I may be able to fix it!

Thanks for the replies and help.

Scud

 

dougstruck

Scud,

Had an '89 Maxima that went through alternators left and right. The Nissan warranty on the alternator isn't very long and I finally replaced it with a reman from a parts store and the alternator came with a lifetime warranty. Drove the car another 85000 miles and never had another alternator problem.
The odds are high that both alternators are bad, but it happens!

SPEEDO

ok, you should have 2 fusible links, one is a black wire and the other has four wires, 2 brown and 2 green. they plug in at the positive side of the battery (right at the post) sometimes they get corrosion inside the wire or you might have had a power spike and it cooked one of the wires... here are some Nissan part numbers that might help....
24022-05E00 black wire
24022-01G05 2-brown/2 green
B4341-89930 black connector that they plug into!
hope that helps you a little

veesix

By the way, welcome to the forum Scud.

I hope I did not come across rude by sounding like Mr. "get that think to a mechanic". I like working on my truck but I dont have a garage, or lots of tools, or even a driveway; So I spend allot of time thinking about paying for mechanics.

Scud

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info and SPEEDO, thanks for the part numbers! I will look into those right now. I had to literally 'run' a few errands around town and am now back in the seat.

And thanks for the welcome to the forum, I am a member of the GSResources for vintage Suzuki motorcycles and those guys turned me into a mechanic as I am sure you guys will with my truck!

Oh heck, I am used to getting jabs form the boys on the other forum, I am pretty hard to hurt, most things just ricochet right off, hey, you gotta laugh from time to time or you'll go crazy.

I'll keep ya posted on what I find out.

Scud

Scud

Well.....I just got off the phone with my mechanic and he says that the problem may lie in a loose and stretched belt which has been causing the alternator to not rotate at a proper speed. I hope he is right about this, I will know in one hour and let all you guys know.

I guess that would explain the sporadic charging from the first alternator. Hmm......

Scud

 

veesix

Scud,

The alternator on my truck went very intermittent earlier this year. It was back at the end of march (just took a quick look at an old receipt). I pulled the original Nissan alternator, took it apart, and it was a total mess on the inside. A brush had , somehow, dug a trench into that thing that it works against (stator maybe), and it was obvious that a small charge was arching around the joint, because it had lots of burt plastic in there.

I replaced it with an Advance Auto Parts alternator and it worked, ok, for a week. And that, as people say, is when the real trouble started. The battery went back to the intermittent charging, and the power steering started to fade in and out.

What happened was that the crank key has sheared, and the harmonic balancer (and it's drive pulley) had stopped turning the belts. I have the VG30I, not sure if the same "sheared key" problem is as common with your engine.


veesix

Scud

Veesix and all,

Fortunately it was not as complex as that, it was a wiring glitch in the harness from the plug that goes into the alternator, it had a short. Once that was addressed it fixed the problem!! I am charging at 14.2 volts +- and all is well.

Now its back to the Nissan dealer to give him the bad news and give them their alternator back (which is probably fine as Veesix said in an earlier post).

Thanks so much for all your guys insights and ideas.

When I get another problem I will indeed visit you all again.

Best,

Scud

knobularlife

I have the exact same prob with my 87 4x4 4 cyl
No Batt Light.....not charging But Alt past a bench test (Alt is brand new)
batt is good ...bench tested ok

I see the Alt has a pos batt connection and a ground connection..but what exactly does the plug in conection do???
The truck will run with this disconnected.Not sure why

PLEASE!!!! if any body can help' I have had the alt off the truck 7 times now and it won't stop raining on me

BO~

Scud

That connector is what runs all your electrical components such as dash lights, cigarette lighter, etc. So, it means that it would also run your battery light on your dash or another word for it is the 'idiot light'. I discovered on mine that when the factory connector was cut off, because the after market alternator used a different connector, that there was a loose wire in the splice. Once that was resolved everyhting owrked great. Not sure but maybe what I would do is trace the wires back into the harness and see if something is loose. Unless you did not have to splice into the factory harness. If that is not the case then I am not sure where else to steer you, maybe someone else with more knowledge about this will chime in. Good luck!

Scud