finn188

New battery, new alternator, new wiring, good grounds, extra grounds added, the only thing I can think of is that the computer is telling the alternator to work at full blast all the time.
So does anyone know if the voltage regulator is in the alternator or is it the computer that regulates the voltage? I have heard conflicting opinions on this. Thanks!

the gimp

my opinion is you have a short go over your extra grounds and new wiring and make sure, check the diode if you jeep has one
the voltage regulater is in the altenator housing
you might have a bad altenator...even new there are defective ones

finn188

the alt. has diodes only and the voltage regulator is actually in the PCU. I am on the third alt. and 2nd battery. The grounds are all good, but I will check for a short.

the gimp

i think its a short
let us know

finn188

So turns out it was a bad fuse. The main alternator wire runs from the back of the alternator toward the PDC. Just before it gets there, it splits to 2 smaller wires which each have their own 60 amp fuse in the PDC. Fuse F8 was the one I kept blowing and fuse F16 checked out okay. Last night I exposed all the wireind from alt. to PDC and on to PCU but all wires/connections looked great. So my wife is waching me work and says " I bet its that fuse right there." I explained that I had already tested it and its fine. "How do you test it?", she asked. So I pulled the fuse and held one post to + battery and the other grounded. Test light indicated power to both sides of the fuse, but I noticed a flicker in the test light. I shook the fuse and felt something moving freely inside. Upon very close inspection with good light and shaking the fuse, it was bad. There was no smoke inside or melted metal, but a clean break at all 4 points where the "fuse" contacts the posts (the thin parts of metal designed to blow if needed. So with a test light, the fuse checked out, but with car running at high idle it would not flow electricity causing the other fuse to blow. Sorry this is so wordy but I learned a lot from this. This has been a 2 year problem that cost me hundreds and lots of hours. The only thing I can think of is that the fuse would work occasionally when the free floating metal would make contact for a while until I hit a bump or something and it would become useless and then the other fuse would blow. Anyways, thanks for all the help!!

drakan1908

Cool, glad it was a cheap fix

the gimp

glad you figured it out

sahid

Well DUDE!! you were very helpful, pls say thanks to your wife for me and thank you too.
I had the same problem, turns out that some1 replace a 60 amp fuse with a 40amp, it blew and got the same problem that you had I did not notice a thing untill i read this. Fixwed and working!