battery/alternator help

[slim j 10+ year member]

I installed a new "HO" alternator yesterday and on the way home, my charge light came on. I use a DMM to check the voltage at the battery and it read 12.2, I am sure this is a problem. What can I do to check and see if I have a drain on the battery? Put the DMM on battery with the car off and see if it drops?

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[XtrmAudioCncpts 10+ year member]

make sure you hooked everything up to your alt right. the same thing happened to me and i found out that i had forgotten to hook up one wire and it screwed my battery up

 

[slim j 10+ year member]

I only have one wire that goes to the battery. Then I have this plug thing. It just plugs in. I may re-check to make sure the wire is very securly connected tothe battery.

 

[slim j 10+ year member]

I checked and rechecked all connections. For some reason my battery stays pegged at 12.33. Any new ideas?

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

What is the voltage with the car off? May not be charging at all....Check voltage at the back of the ALT too

 

[slim j 10+ year member]

It is 12.3 on at both @ the alt (using the battery for the black prong, if it matters) and 12.3 at the battery. Off, it drops to about 11.98-11.89

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Either the ALT or the install of the ALT went south. Did you ever check voltage after the install?

 

[slim j 10+ year member]

No, I did not. I should have had it tested beforehand but I did not. What items could cause the alt to go bad during the install?

 

[slim j 10+ year member]

Since it isn't too hard to remove, I am going to take it to advance auto parts tomorrow to see if it is my install or the alternator itself.

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

To many things to speculate on. Still have the old unit? Was that one working and you just wanted to go with a higher output?

If the other one went bad, could be something causing them to go bad....just a thought.

 

[slim j 10+ year member]

Other one worked well. It was starting to hurt due to age and excessive current draw, I didn't want to wait until it died and left me stranded