I got back today from mudding and I was on my way to go snag some frozen yogurt and on the way there I noticed my voltage starting to get low, like 10 volts.. and then it was starting to have trouble accelerating and was sounding like it was almost misfiring. I turned my Jeep off, went in and got the good stuff, came outside and my Jeep wouldn't start. Had a friend come help me and we jumped the jeep only to have the bare minimum 9 volts to barely run. It was dark and I drove home without my lights on because they KILLED the power. Did my alternator just die randomly? What could have caused it? Just because it's on a 90? I'm going to check some more stuff out in the morning once the rain stops..........freaking missing out on the mud....

 

Sounds like a bad connection between the alt and the battery. Check for corrosion and do a voltage drop test. Either that or your alt is dying

 

Okay I will. Please explain on the voltage drop test?

 

http://www.excelauto.com/online/Tech.d/altvdt.html

 

See if you've got battery voltage at teh large terminal of the alternator. Unplug the small harness from the alternator and turn the key to ON. See if you've got voltage to one of the two wires in that harness. If you have voltage ant the big terminal and one of the wires in the harness, your alternator is bad. If you don't have voltage at either of them, time to find out why.

 

Sweet thanks

 

the mud probably killed your alternator, being it's one of the lowest parts on your engine.

use the old mechanics trick and see if a screwdriver will magnetically stick to the alternator when it's running. if it sticks, it's working. maybe not the best, depending on the strength of the magnetic force.

 

Yea I looked at it this morning wondering if the distributer cap got covered in moud/water and I checked the alt and it's caked.

 

You said you just finished mudding. I know that I have fried more alternators doing just that.

 

you killed your alternator with mud - sorry.

I did the same thing on my first outing

 

We all may hate them, but autozone will test it for free.

 

So will advanced auto parts, and with better equipment. Spray the **** out of the alternator with a water bottle or hose or whatever you can to blast stuff out. That's what revived mine after I filled it mudding and started dying on me.

 

Ah that sucks. I'll clean it out and try to revive it...have any of you guys found a way to protect the alt when you're mudding? I can't give it up!

 

I've been contemplating building a splash shield for a while now, just haven't got around to it. Home Depot sells sheets of galvanized ducting sheet metal for cheap - should be the perfect size

Like so:

 

Thank you I will totally be doing that once I replace this thing. Ugh so dumb I don't want to buy a new alt right now!!