charging problem

[k-roy]

My idiot light for the battery light is stuck on.
I checked the voltage from the alternator and it reads 14.7v. The battery is reading 13.4v. My battery cables were replaced earlier this year and I just cleaned the contacts for good measure. I checked the valve cover, waterneck and transmission grounds and they all look to be in good order.

This may or may not be relevant but I just did a head job on the old beast. I thourougly cleaned the head, intake and carb and replaced all the gaskets seals and the timing belt. So I may have missed something.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

[Vinny]

Kevin,
Are you checking the voltage at the battery with the car running and accesories turned on ???? You should check it with the car running, the blower motor, headlights, and rear defroster on. Voltage at the battery should be between 13.9 and 15.1 so you re a little low there.

You also might want to check fuses #1 under the dash (15A) and fuse #8 under the hood (10A). If either is blown it will cause the light to stay on even in the charging system is working properly.

If the fuses are both good and the battery is still only showing 13.4 with the car running and everything on you may be looking at an alternator.

Welcome back. Give me a call later tonight (after 7 lol) on the cell if you need anything

[Mac]

If after you checked everything that Vinny told you and the light is still on, check the choke heater. Disconnect the plug on the choke heater and see if the light goes out.

[FoX]

if its fuel injected the white/green wire is cut or shorted somewhere. I had that problem in the past.

[k-roy]

It was a fuse, thanks Vin :thumbup:

Hey Mac i don't got a choke, thats something you do to a bitch, not a car. Not really but you get the point.

Fox, thanks but I don't got no fancy PGMFI, thats on the other car

:bandance: <---hehe

[Magny]

I have a similar problem, but mine drasins out the battery after a while, so I have to gun the car past 3k rpms to get the charging on. But when it drops past the 3k mark the light turns back on. I checked the fuses as stated and they are both fine, I checked all my recent modifications and they are all intact. The only thing I can think of is my grounding system being improperly grounded. Still did it to the same area of contact, but there is still something telling me that the connections are no good. I haven't cleaned the surface of the contacts yet, which I will be doing soon. But could anyone else have a thought to what may be wrong before I put it in the shop and get a $500 bill???

Oh BTW, when I first had this charging problem, I accidently left my acc. lights on. But I figured out that, and got a new battery anyways. I also got the right size battery to be on the safe side too. But would attempting to take off my dash be the source of the problem, cause I unscrewed the dash as much as I could, except for most of them I can't really get to, so dash is still stuck. But could it be that I have unscrewed a certain contact of some sort and causing the charging system to fail??? I had the alternator bench tested, and it came out passed with 100% functionality. Other thing I could think of is the harness has gone bad and may have to replace the whole thing. Plz someone let me know.

[TheSummoner101]

I have a similar problem, but mine drasins out the battery after a while, so I have to gun the car past 3k rpms to get the charging on. But when it drops past the 3k mark the light turns back on. I checked the fuses as stated and they are both fine, I checked all my recent modifications and they are all intact. The only thing I can think of is my grounding system being improperly grounded. Still did it to the same area of contact, but there is still something telling me that the connections are no good. I haven't cleaned the surface of the contacts yet, which I will be doing soon. But could anyone else have a thought to what may be wrong before I put it in the shop and get a $500 bill???

Oh BTW, when I first had this charging problem, I accidently left my acc. lights on. But I figured out that, and got a new battery anyways. I also got the right size battery to be on the safe side too. But would attempting to take off my dash be the source of the problem, cause I unscrewed the dash as much as I could, except for most of them I can't really get to, so dash is still stuck. But could it be that I have unscrewed a certain contact of some sort and causing the charging system to fail??? I had the alternator bench tested, and it came out passed with 100% functionality. Other thing I could think of is the harness has gone bad and may have to replace the whole thing. Plz someone let me know.
have ur alternator checked. when i replaced my alternator, my light kept blinking on and off; it was a bad alternator, and thus screwed up my battery....so i ended up replacing both of them (again), and was fine after that.

[Magny]

I already had the alt. checked, as I said in the previous post. Guy says its 100% functional.

[Magny]

ok guys, hate to pull up an old thread, but i found the problem. it was the alt, just wasnt working at low rpms. when hey did the test it was higher than 3k rpms thats why it showed good. now i got a reman alt on, light still comes on, but dimmed, goes away after a min or 2 of driving sometimes longer. gotta fully charge my battery, sucks remans dont charge fully only keeps it charged at a certain point. aint payin for a new alt at $260, aint got the money for that now.

anyways, i found out an interesting fact about alts and high-powered stereo systems, They burn up the alt more faster than normal if it is over the amperage of the alts spec.. so as for my alt being at 60 amps, everything i run has to be lower than that. so whatever you are runnin, make sire it is under your amperage. combine all the other stuff you would normally use (i.e. heater/ac fan, headlights, sunroof, deck (yes even your head unit is counted) interior lights, etc.) in any situation, but more than others and add that with your system. it should all be under the max amperage of the alt. otherwise you will run out of the max amperage and overload the alt and burn it out. thats why i didnt even get to keep my "new" alt more than a year. the one i have now, i am gonna wait to put my system back in until i get a higher output alt.

[danronian]

A reman. alt. should charge your battery completely, if not, take it back b/c its faulty. THat is like buying a starter that only starts your car sometimes or not all the way. I have had an alternator rebuilt, and a starter rebuilt, and they work better than before, not worse.

[POS carb]

it's usually 1 of 3 things:
1) there's a fuse. I'm not sure how LXis are but on the carbies the fuel pump is on the same circuit so the car won't run after a few secs anyway, check it under the dash on the bottom left
2) you have a bad regulator. You have 14.7 v which is great but rev it past 2k and make sure the voltage isn't any higher than 15V. This can be screwed up if you washed down your engine after the head job and got too much water in it while it had juice to it
3) bad charge cable contacts / bad belt tension... check the battery voltage somewhere else in the car, it should be over 14v anywhere in the car with the engine running. you may have disconnected something on the head job