Hey everyone. First off let me say that you have a great forum and resource here! my '91 Cherokee is my first Jeep, although my brother does have a '95 that I've driven before, so I know they're pretty good before I got it. My issue here is that my check engine light came on tonight, and when I pulled the code it was DTC41 - "Open or Short condition detected in the Generator Field Control Circuit" which I figgure is Chrysler's way of saying "your alternator is taking a dump".

Seeing as the last time I took it over to AutoZone to have them test the charging circuit (as I hadn't yet learned that the voltage gauge has quirks) I did learn that it was apparently showing low amperage output, but the voltage regulator was OK. I did put my DMM on the batt terminals after pulling the code, and engine off it was 12.7V, and engine running at idle it was 13.7V, so I'm guessing the regulators OK.

Anyone else have experience with this code? I'm hoping it is in fact the alternator as I was planning on upgrading it anyway, and I really don't want to have to mess with the ECU even though it's only OBD1 (not Renix) Thanks in advance for the help!

 

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. Just get another alternator.
Mac

 

Thanks, what I was hoping for. Not too familiar with Chrysler products, other than they do funky things like putting the voltage regulator in the engine computer, and those "wonderful" quick connect fittings on the transmission line (which are more trouble than their worth, as I've discovered)

 

Yea you do not want it to be the regulator. It's built into the ECU. I brought my alternator to a rebuild place because I knew deep down inside of me it was bad and they were testing it, and they were like "I don't know if this one's bad." But then they took it apart and it was shot, whew. Cost me $80 for the rebuild and it looked brand new, they just reused the case and pulley and put all new internals. Everything was sandblasted and it looked nice. So I took the Jeep offroad and got it covered in mud