PonyWithaPony

I dont understand this... I'v been trying to diagnose it for months. and i mean like 5 or so months. MY battery light keeps popping on randomly and shutting off when ever it wants to, it dosent matter what im doing, or what loads are on in the car. sometimes its on at idle, sometimes not. Sometimes when im driving and sometimes not... The alternator puts out fine, it puts out sufficient amprage and voltage, 14.53V with no excessive ripple, and no dim lights or stumbling in performance. their is also 7.4 ohms of resistance from the alt case to battery ground. I tested the voltage at the green/red wire, which is the battery light circuit and most of the time its at 12 or so and when the battery light comes on it drops to 1.27. Can anyone help me out? what could this be? a voltage regulator? one of the ground straps? early signs of alternator failure?

Daehawk

Sounds like a loose connection...terminal or ground wire.

PonyWithaPony

its not the terminal, im guessing its a ground than? also found out i need a new plug for my alternator because the old one wont sit on their right. The clip part broke off of the female section that goes onto it. Once it stops raining i'll check my ground straps, the battery to body one is ok... But im not so sure about the other ones, i know theirs one behind the intake but i cant find the dang thing, and some one told me theirs one under the car on the transmission to the unibody.

Daehawk

That clip could just be it.

PonyWithaPony

i think so too because if i jiggle the connection on the voltage regulator when the lights on, it shuts off. And it would make sence... If the engine shakes and shakes it loose, it would go on, than it would sometimes shake back into the right position and shut off. Well i'll just pick up a new one than and see if it fixes the issue... I should probably still check the ground straps and find the 7ohm of resistance issue on the ground side of everything

PonyWithaPony

With a generous and much appreciated donation from a junk yard Taurus i got a new plug for my altornation, i found out its the same identical alternator, and will probably go back and snag it next week just in case i ever need one. but the new clip fixed the problem!

Daehawk

hey congrats! Glad you're back to normal.