Hey All!

I have a 98 Cherokee Sport. The alternator is acting up on me. While driving today the battery died and the vehicle died. I had seen the voltage meter on the console read 0 volts. I went and had the battery charged (it is good) and I bought a new alternator. I went ahead and double checked the alternator with a charged battery and when I pulled the positive cable the engine stopped. While driving home the voltage meter popped back up to around 14 v and I was able to remove the positive battery cable and the engine kept running....

Anyone have an idea where I should look for a short or another reason why this thing is giving me a headache?

 

DO NOT do this!!!
It was a good way to check if your alternator is going bad on the older vehicles before they started putting in all of the electronic. Now all it can do is fry you computer.Pulling the battery cable while the engine is running is the last thing you want to do. Don't get me wrong, It wont fry the computer every time you do it but there is a real good possibility that it will. Anyways start by cleaning all of the ground points. That would include both battery cable ends, Battery to fender, oil dipstick, rear of the head to the fire wall, the coil, and the mounting area between the starter and the engine block. Also check the battery cables by bending them. If you hear them cracking and they feel brittle it's probably time to change them out. Use a wire brush or sandpaper to clean grounds and make sure that they are nice and shinny.

 

That pretty much sums it up. Just check grounds, cables, ect. and check for corrosion. Anything that could cause a weak connection, I would replace

 

Great thanks! And thanks for the word on pulling the cable. My old man taught that to me when I was a teen.

 

It was semi-OK to do that 60 years ago.

Nowadays we have new-fangled testers.

 

Yeah, that was do-able ...quite some time ago...