Alternater Prob

[philth2]

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar problem,

All of a sudden my alt light came on, i jumped out and expected to see a missing belt, nothing, jumped back in the car and the light was out. After this the light came on and off and after a week of this i finally took a look in to it and it turned out that it was a bad "Battery --> Body --> Engine" ground cable. Now the weird thing is...

How come the car never had problems starting even when i shut it off with the alt light on?

Only answer to this is the secondary ground on the valve cover, now the real question... If the starter could ground through the secondary "Engine --> Body" Ground why couldn't the alt?????

Please make sence of this for me...

Oh, BTW this is a 88 accord lx with no mods other than my uber-loud sound system,

And this is my first post.. Don't hurt me please :help:

[philth2]

Sonuva, I posted that at work yesterday, and on the way home it came back on..

Damn my car.....


How hard is it to change the alt on a 88 LX? Is there a way to get it out without taking the CV off??

[Bloodlust]

I have never done it myself, but my Dad has been a mechanic for about 30 years and he dreads replacing alternators out of our cars. It happened twice to mine already, and after the second time he said he would never do it again so i would either have to invest in a high output alternator or take out the system. So i got a high output one from www.mean-green.com and havent had any problems since.

[ivanfbi]

its fairly easy, I killed my alternator by taking battery off the working car, so alternator couldn't get rid of all the energy and went down. So, I bought a new alternator from a 90-93 Accord and did the same thing Smuffguy did. you can find the thread in Technical section. All you have to do is loosen several bolt holding AC, Alternator, and something else and take all the belts off, cuz I had to change the belt. and put everything back to its spot. BUT, if you are gonna use 86-89 Accords alt. its gonna be even easier, you don't have to take the belts off.

[ChaseR]

its fairly easy, I killed my alternator by taking battery off the working car, so alternator couldn't get rid of all the energy and went down. So, I bought a new alternator from a 90-93 Accord and did the same thing Smuffguy did. you can find the thread in Technical section. All you have to do is loosen several bolt holding AC, Alternator, and something else and take all the belts off, cuz I had to change the belt. and put everything back to its spot. BUT, if you are gonna use 86-89 Accords alt. its gonna be even easier, you don't have to take the belts off.

I did it in 2 hours by lifting the motor halfway out... if you have the equipment do it this way, its always easier to work on the motor when its not in the car...

[Mac]

Before you change it I suggest you make sure that it is bad. There is other things you can check first. Check the condition and tension of the belt. Also if the choke heater is going bad it can turn on that light. Make sure that the battery, alternator and ground connections are all clean and tight.

[DeathRat]

Have you added any electrical mods to your car lately? I have (Neon, LEDs & H4's) & now my Alt Light comes on when my Alternator can't keep up with the demand.

[88accordhb]

bloodlust...i know wat your dad means man...when my dad and i changed the alternator..it was such a whicket job...with the fat carb in the way and the block you have a small hole just the size of the alternator to take it out when you took all the bolts off..and that wasn't an easy job either..you gotta take the wrench and socket or wat not and manuver it in there...then you gotta find the perfect position or the alternator to get thru the hole...then the new one is also hard to get in...in conclusion...changing the alternator in our car is a botchnoz!
edit:i think this is my third time bringing this up...some guy says it only took him 20 mins to do on his 3g...i have no idea how he did that.

[Blkblurr]

Can you measure the voltage at the battery when your light is coming on? This will tell alot about what may be happening. It may be that your alt bruches are worn. It will be intermittant when that happens. if your battery is in good shape, you will still be able to start the car.

[Roadhouse]

i just took the strut loose from the steering knuckle and let it drop down which moved the cv/axle down enough for me to slide it out the bottom. I just had to jack the motor up just a hair and it dropped right out and I slid the new one in.

[philth2]

Before you change it I suggest you make sure that it is bad. There is other things you can check first. Check the condition and tension of the belt. Also if the choke heater is going bad it can turn on that light. Make sure that the battery, alternator and ground connections are all clean and tight.

It's probably not the belt, i had that problem before and it made a horrible squealing noise. Tightened the belt and it was fixed.. How exactly do i find the choke heater and check it? I'm not even sure if i have that..

It's the weirdest thing tho' very random. I'm at work now and when i go out to my car and start it the light won't be on. Once I get out of the parking lot the light will come on and there is a fifty fifty chance that it'll go out before i get to my house (~20 min drive).. It seems that at night it is on more of the time than the day.. so it might be heat related (Weither the heat effects the brushes or the choke heater i don't know.....)

I know for sure that it's not current related because it comes on weither the system is up or not and shutting the system off doesn't affect anything. (With the belts if i shut the system off while it was squealing it would stop.)

I have also checked the alt when the light was on (And burnt my arm on the f***ing exaust 3 times) and moving cables doesnt effect anything and the pulley is turning with the belt..

I am going to check the choke heater (Hope my dad knows where it is)

What is Stock ampage for alts on 88 LX's?
Mine came with an 80 which i was told was above stock.. but Canadian tire said that the replacements are a mere 100 amp.. WTF?

Thanks in advance

[Mac]

How exactly do i find the choke heater and check it?

I never messed with mine. In fact I never ever looked for it. But I understand that it is mounted on the right side of the carb. I think that it is tough to get at. Any way if you find it you can check. Just wait for the light to come on, then unplug it (with engine still running) and see if the light goes out, and comes back on when you plug it in again. If it does the heater should be your problem. If it doesn't, then the problem is something else.