Ignore water pump, I meant to put Power Steering pump!!

Story: Car shut off on interstate/towed home/Hooked jump box to car & it started

Prob: Alternator went out

Soution: Bought new 65 amp Alternator

Question: All I saw was just the slide adjuster and the 2 pivot/locking bolts. The new Alternator had 1 long bolt with a spacer in the pivot holes, so I just took the spacer out and used the two bolts.

The old belt could not get tight enough,just figured it was over stretched and bought new ones.. Wrong... The new ones only got tight enough to stay on but would slip. I looked all around and could not see any kind of tensioner on the alt, or even on the a/c condenser . Is there something wrong with my eyes and I'm missing a adjustment/tensioner bolt?

2nd Question: I looked at the Power steering pump adjusting bolts and only saw the pivot/locking and the slider bolts. So I took the pivot one out and loosed the slider bolt. It would not move at all. I ended up having to loosen the other 3 bolts on the slider bracket to get the belt off. All off the bolts go into a water way in the block it looks like, including the main adjustment bolt. That makes it leak at the block from the gasket that is under the t-stat housing and down. Again, am I doing it wrong or is my truck just rigged like the wiring.

This is the first time ive ran into this on any vehicle Ive done. But I may be having a stupid day again lol. Help!! p.s- Yes, I was bored and messed with the colors

 

if your truck has ac the belt should go main pulley, ac pulley, alt pulley. the belt does not go on the water pump pulley. the water pump and power steering usually share a belt.

you should put your truck info in your signature so that we know what we are trying to help you work on. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/profile...=editsignature

 

Yeah I just corrected as you posted.I meant to say Power steering and the 2nd question happened when I removed the belt to pull the alt belts off.

Working on sig now, It is a 1985 w-150 with the 318

 

Your alternator should adjust left and right on that big long horizontal bolt. Its that still the same between 85 and 89? You should be able to loosen the holddown bolt and back the alternator out to your left by tightening that long bolt.

 

it sound like the belts may be too long or are routed wrong. if it ever stops raining i could try to get you some pictures of the power steering brackets. i know the older power steering brackets look like more of a pain in the A$$ to adjust than the newer ones. i was thinking about changing mine to the new style.

 

This is where my new problem is now. The alternator is not charging the battery. My truck does not have the usual voltage reg on the firewall and the old alt had this little box mounted straight to the alt, which I am assuming is the same as a voltage reg. Then I just have a gauge wire going to the lug of the alt from the battery pos.

I hooked the Yellow and green wires to the field prongs, black ground and red to the power of the alt. If I remember correctly from last night (voltage meter went out) The lug on the alt was around 12.7 and the battery was the same, it would just slowly loose power as truck is running. I am just guessing now that this box is bad, but I can not find it anywhere. Any idea what it is? Or if I have it hooked wrong?

 

1. Sounds like the alt may not have been the problem in the first place.

2. The new alt was apparently not a direct replacement and should have been returned instead of modifying the mounting.

3. Since you can't ID the box I would scrap it and put on a standard voltage regulator.

4. There is no way I would expose my voltage regulator in a position where it could be destroyed by a belt coming apart.

 

Finally, truck is back and running again! Thanks!

 

Well battery was dead when I got home last night, so just left it on the charger all night. Started right up this morning, and when I revved it up some, all the gauges and tail lights got brighter. Just figured the battery is weak. Took it by advanced to get the battery tested, and turns out the battery is still not getting a charge.

Truck Off / Truck On

- Battery : 12.46 / 13.39
- Lug : 12.42 / 13.71
- Field prong close to lug : 12.39 / 13.90
- 2nd Field prong : .83 / .89

I let it run for a bit, and wiggled/pushed the Voltage Regulators plug, then retested.

- 12.70 / 14.10-20
- 12.68 / 14.20
- 12.68 / 14.20
- Didn't change much

What could it be?

 

According to those readings it is charging...what are you expecting?