Alternator keeps working then not working
Captain
Joined: Aug 2024
Posts: 501
Likes: 66
From: West Texas
Years ago I had a chebby truck with a bad alternator.
It would charge fine, but it was shorted out internally .... 70% of the time you shut the truck off and go into a store to shop and no problem.
30% of the time you come out from the store and had a completely drained battery.
Seems like it was luck of the draw on where the alternator stopped spinning and where the brushes were touching to if it would create the short or not.
Replacing the alternator fixed it ..... it was tough to diagnose because it worked fine most of the time .... just depended on where it landed when engine shut off.
I was a 22 year old kid at the time with a 1962 chebby truck with a 350 engine ... a pretty basic wiring system to troubleshoot ... not like today.
Now I'm 62 and never seen the issue again so it is rare .... but it is possible.
It would charge fine, but it was shorted out internally .... 70% of the time you shut the truck off and go into a store to shop and no problem.
30% of the time you come out from the store and had a completely drained battery.
Seems like it was luck of the draw on where the alternator stopped spinning and where the brushes were touching to if it would create the short or not.
Replacing the alternator fixed it ..... it was tough to diagnose because it worked fine most of the time .... just depended on where it landed when engine shut off.
I was a 22 year old kid at the time with a 1962 chebby truck with a 350 engine ... a pretty basic wiring system to troubleshoot ... not like today.
Now I'm 62 and never seen the issue again so it is rare .... but it is possible.
