I have 03 dakota with a 4.7 , started great this morning , got to work went to start it again and nothing, jumped it off started up when took jumper cable off it died , I replaced the ALT and jumped it again and it died again . Any help would great Thanks Mark

 

Did you have your battery tested?

 

well not yet , my meter tells me I have 12.7 volts on it . And it should run with battery unhooked should'nt it?? Thanks Mark

 

Most new cars wont run with the battery unhooked.

 

No, it will not run w/o a battery. It will continue to die until the battery amperage get
s built up. 12.7 is battery voltage, when the truck is running, check voltage accross the battery terminals, should be 13.5 or so.

Your battery dumped on you, I'd be willing to bet. The heat is harder on batteries than
cold.

 

On another note, if you have a truck with an old battery and old alternator and one goes, its best to replace them both. Why you ask? because a bad battery can ruin an alternator and a bad alternator can ruin a battery.

If the alternator is faulty it can over charge the battery damaging it, or not charge it and the rapid discharge can kill the battery.

If you have a bad battery the alternator can burn out trying to keep it charged.

 

guys Thanks for all the help .I will get a new battery tomorrow and give it a shot . I will let you know the outcome . Man I am glad i found this site it is pretty cool all the info in here , Thanks so much.ark

 

Well i put the battery on there and so far so good . took the old stuff to Auto Zone and they both failed the test. It was running a little sluggish at first but i think it just needed to recalibrate the computer and run for a while seems to be ok now . Thanks for the valuble help on this.Mark

 

Just on a side note just because the batt has 12v doesnt mean its still good. It can still be totaly shot when trying to start the truck.