Battery not charging

[justice]

On the 1992, the volt guage in the dash is showing 12 volts when running. Battery shows 12.55 volts at idle, no change when running. (tested with volt meter)

I pulled the alternator and had it tested and it passed. I'm not sure where else to look right now.

I verified that I have continuity from the alt to the battery via the large red wire, but i have no idea how to test the other wires in the plug that also attaches to the alt..

I recently had a new computer and O2 sensor installed. Old computer was bad. There have been no other changes to the van.

help.

[Kabey's Van]

Clean up or replace your "big three" and see if there is a difference.
At 12.55 it's picking up a bit of a charge, so I am thinking its a bad connection or wire somewhere. Check all your grounds, upgrade them to a heavier wire if you wish. A poor ground willl wreak havoc on an electrical system.

Peter

[Cobra]

i've had an alternator not charge and test good turned out to be a loose connection inside the alternator, but i'm with Kabey 12.55 seems like a strange number to me

[justice]

FWIW, i did replace the alt and the replacement did the same thing as the old one. I took it back and had them BOTH tested (new and old) both were OK. Got my money back and stuck the old one back in.

My mechanic tells me to check the wiring at the starter to see if there is a bad or broken wire there.

[justice]

just crawled under the van to try to look st the starter. from what I can see, there are 4 wires going to the starter.

The main wire from the battery.

A red wire with what looks like a fuse on it.

A purple wire

and a fourth wire that looks like it is yellow, but has a fuse looking thing on it and on the other side of the fuse the wire looks black or brown with a stripe. This wire is definitly broken between the fuse and whereever it attaches on the starter. I will have to drop the starter to find out exactly where it goes.

strangely, my wiring diagram only shows 3 wires going to the starter, red, purple and black.

[1Gary]

Dow-anyone do a aftermarket remote start on your van??. :-k

[justice]

Dow-anyone do a aftermarket remote start on your van??. :-k

no, but it did have a non working alarm when i bought it, but it was removed years ago.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

You will want to pull those connections apart and clean them well. One of those wires is the charge line from the alternator unless you have done the "big 3".

[Kidhauler]

From the "fuse" looking thing to the starter is whats called a fuseable link. Basicly in the event of a short the last 6 inches of the wire is desinged to burn up. If the wire looks broken or damaged it is possible that the inside of the wire is burnt out and you are left with just a empty case. I had that happen on my 89 a few years ago it took me a while to find. I just went to the wreckers and pulled a wire from a junk van so that the fusable link section would be the correct length.

[reaper]

Check the battery,If you can toss in another battery & check charge rate.

[justice]

its fixed. it was a combination of the blown fusable link and a blown fuse under the dash.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Cool. It's nice when it's a relatively easy fix.

[1Gary]

Good to hear you found it.

[silver mist AWD]

Right after replacing my grill after trans cooler installation my idiot light for battery came on, guage shows 12v charging rate, usually it is 14 plus. I guess I will go with this information and proceed.

[astroturf]

Right after replacing my grill after trans cooler installation my idiot light for battery came on, guage shows 12v charging rate, usually it is 14 plus. I guess I will go with this information and proceed.

What electric device did you disconnect?

I would start simply at the battery cable.

Good Luck, Jim