I bought my 1997 Dakota a couple years ago. the previous owner stripped all the emissions equipment off of it, so I couldn't license it. My county stopped emissions testing a couple months ago, so I licensed it.
I noticed when I was driving it with a load of junk to the dump that it wasn't charging the battery. When I got home I did the alternator test I know. I started it and had a friend try to keep it running and I disconnected the positive battery cable. It died immediately. We repeated the test a few times and could never keep the pickup running. That told me the alternator was bad.
I bought a new alternator and repeated the test. It still died. That tells me for some reason the pickup isn't getting any juice from the alternator.
One thing I should mention is that the alternator I got is for a 2000 Dakota. The one for a 97 that the parts place had wasn't the same as the one I pulled off my Dakota. It had a different electrical plug. The one for a 2000 matched mine, so I bought it. I'm wondering if the previous owner put a different wiring harness in it, and if that could have anything to do with why I'm not getting enough juice from the alternator to run my pickup.
A friend of mine doesn't think that my battery would of had enough juice to drive to the dump and back, but I've driven cars on just the battery years ago. I have no idea what could be causing this problem. Help Please.

 

Have you actually measured the voltage coming from the alternator?

 

No It's supposed to put out 1.7 amps. I have a multi meter, but I'm not really sure how to measure the power coming out the alternator.

 

I took my Dakota to Napa auto parts, and they hooked it up to a battery, starter, alternator tester. They said my I must have an electrical problem because my battery isn't getting any juice from the alternator. Is there a way I could hot wire the alternator directly to the battery?

 

Is the alternator putting out the correct voltage? It already IS wired directly to the battery. (sorta) There *might* be a fuse in there as well though.

 

I checked the fuse. It's fine. I'm going to have to google how to check the voltage on an alternator.

 

I looked at google on how to test an alternator, but all of them said to attach the multi-meter to the battery and raise the rpms and see if the volts go up. My problem is no volts are getting to my battery from my alternator.

 

I took the brand new alternator off and took it to Napa auto parts and had them bench test it. It failed. I bought it yesterday.

 

I hope you dont have an electrical issue that would burn out the diodes on the alternator.

Also, these trucks will not run off the alternator only. That test worked fine with carbs, but EFI is another animal.

 

I had to have a professional mechanic look at it. The computer was bad. There's a circuit in the computer that controls the alternator and it was bad. They put a new computer in it and now it's fix. It cost me about $650 bucks. Now I've made another post about a malfunctioning tail light.