Charging Issue KZN130

[jbriers]

Afternoon everybody

After combing thread after thread, toyota manuals rah, rah. Trying to piece together everyone's advice and knowledge. Just can't pin down a scenareo that behaves like the one I'm experiencing with the surf

The Mrs was out n about in the surf & couldn't get it to start. She called out the RAC dudes. Short of the problem they said was batteries were flat & they recorded an 'open circuit' with the alternater-fine.
They gave her a jump & followed her back home.

On advice of RAC guy, bought new batteries (as I didn't know how long they had been in service & bought a replacement alternator from Terry (Jap Parts 4x4) in Braintree.

As I'm not very good with electrics, I took the easy, more costly option of replacing faulty parts.

Truck was fine for 2 days, then dash warning lights appeared.
Getting 12.43v on batteries b4 turning over, drops slightly to 12.39v on tickover.

Blip the throttle, creeps up to 12.46/7v & won't go any higher.
Warning lights will intermittently go off but will re-appear after being driven a few mins.

Have checked earth straps, battery terminals r good n tight & clean. Fusable links all look good. 7.5amp charging fuse ok & 100amp fuse ok. Checked pulleys are not slipping. Have replaced alternator belts for new one's.

Have to take batt's out every 2 days to charge em overnight.
Can't seem to get a good recommendation for an auto electrician & am so concerned am gonna get ripped off from previous experiences with mechanics in the area.

Am at my wits end & wifey wants to get rid of the surf.

Any help would be much appreciated guys, many thanks

[Bogus]

Sounds to me like your replacement alternator is either goosed or wrongly wired up

[CatmanDoes]

having just gone through something very similar, I'd say it was your alternator. However I'm nothing nearing an expert on cars and/or electronics.

Checking the wiring is a bit cumbersome and just needs you to trace it around with a voltmeter. But most likely it's the voltage regulator circuit in the alternator that's gone. you should be getting 13 to ~14 volts across the battery when the engine is running and the alternator is kicking out juice.

Frankly it's not too difficult to install a new alternator. 4 bolts hold the AC pump to the engine block, undo those and you can sit the pump on the radiator without having to disconnect anything. Now you can get to the Alternator which is secured with 2 bolts, one you can see the other not so easily, needs a bit of a feel around (it's on a tensioner block). Comes out fairly easy, just be careful you don't over tighten the hinge bolt and the alternator swings nicely before you start re-tensioning the belts - I bent the tension screw doing that and had to make a replacement (thankfully it's an M6 thread). I had that done in an evening - wouldn't have taken a couple of hours or less if I was a bit more inclined.

[sparkyaj]

Hi, sounds to me like the regulator inside the alternator too. However I would check that you have a good earth from the bats down to the metal. If you haven't you could have a good charge but on high resistive neg terminal still get lower voltage.

I've had a problem past two years that the belt slips very lightly. What I found is voltage drops when increasing revs by 1/2 volts only but enough to kill bats in a half day trip.

Now have new belts and surf is very happy.

Can't wait for the snow this year ;-)