QuestionLooking for the reason my 1400 cavalcade won't charge. It was fine last year when we parked it ,took out the battery for the winter put it in this spring after charging it up. ran ,and started fine went for a ride for about 1/2 hour and then the lights and radio started acting weak. Had to keep the RPM's up
just to keep it from dieing,but when I had to finally stop it died and it was so dead that nothing would work. checked all the fuses,and wiring everything looks good.We jumped it let it charge for 5 min or so and I rode it 5 miles back home with out any problem. after sitting 2 hours ...dead. put in a new battery and the same story,but this battery charged back up. ????? what ya think? stator/ regulator? and how hard is it to change.?
AnswerI've never seen a cavalcade, but a car is a car.
First inspect the wires at the battery for corrosion, and to see if they have swelled with corrosion. Just offhand, I would expect that to be the issue.
You will need access to a voltmeter.
See if there's voltage at the alternator output post while it's running
If not check to see if the alternator light is illuminating when you first turn the ignition to "on" but haven't started the engine. That could be a poor connection at the battery wiring, or a fuse to the instruments.
Next run a wire from the output post of the alternator, to one wire of the voltmeter. Put the meter on volts - the 2volt scale. Put the other end of the meter on the positive post of the battery. This is simple if you can think that way. You are measuring whether the voltage is conducted easily through the wire, or it has a lot of resistance, and is going to try to go through the voltmeter. More than a half volt means there are problems, and the wore or connectors are at fault. You can do this on the negative post/block/body/frame circuit too.
I you have a bad alternator just replace it completely. There's no way to know if an adjacent part is going to fail.
