97 Dakota, 4cyl, 2wd, mt.

Since I bought this truck, I've had alternator problems. Every now and then, the alternator would stop putting out a charge. It seemed that whenever I disconnected it and cleaned the studs on it, it would work again. I did that a few times, and the problem would go away for a few months, then come back.

Well yesterday the alternator just stopped altogether. I cleaned the studs, cleaned the bolts to the best of my abilities and reattatched it, but nothing happened. The alternator still would not charge. I went out and got a new one, and I still have this problem.

Runs, drives, starts (until my battery runs out of power), doesn't charge.

I suspect those two small wires. I don't know where they run though, so I cannot trace them to see if they are bad.

Anything at all would be helpful.

 

i'm not sure about the dak, but on the ram, the voltage regulator is in the pcm. i don't know how it works, but i suspect those additional control wires allow/disallow/control the output voltage.

i had a charging on my simple boat last year and it had a big tangle of wires from the past. i had to connect 12v to only one of the 2 wires and it would charge the battery. when i connected the second one the alt would overheat. i just connected one and left well enough alone.

you might experiment with this a little.

 

your 'alt -> battery' wire may be corroded on the inside. If so, replace it with a bigger gauge.

 

Doh, I guess when I stuck the new one in, it blew the fuse. Needless to say I put a new one in and it works. Hopefully this means all my wires are intact and in good shape, and with the new alternator, I wont have to worry about messing around with it anymore.