98 dodge durango charging issues

60

Asked by Tateer Oct 01, 2017 at 05:36 PM about the 1998 Dodge Durango SLT 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

New alternator an starter an cable ends ,checked
for bad wires ,want keep charge on battery an
nothing works on instrument panel but light's

18 Answers

60

How would I know when gauge work it was showing charge then drop halfway

22,320

Put voltmeter leads on battery while it is running. Put it in V mode. At idle and at 2K Rpms. You should get 13.5 - 14.8 in that range. If you get battery voltage you have an issue either with alternator, a relay or fuse or wiring. Wiring includes grounds and corrosion.

60

That is what I am saying I've been down the list cable ends alternatr good battery good,check wires to starter and fuses

22,320

Doing this test shows if the "new" alternator is supplying the correct power back to the battery. Was it installed correctly? Do you have high resistance wires between the battery and alternator? Are your grounds good? Is the belt slipping on the pulley creating less voltage? Did you get a defective alternator? Just because it is new doesn't mean it is good. Testing a failed system is important to getting to your end result if you want it fixed.

1 people found this helpful.
22,320

After that then determine if battery is accepting a charge. A battery with a bad cell will not charge correctly and give you starting success. Has battery been load tested? How old is it?

22,320

Are you sure you tested all fuses and relays in all fuse boxes for your vehicle? Some of these are hidden well. I have encountered this more than I can remember about thinking I had checked all a customers fuses or they told me they did and I found another box of 30 fuses and relays under seats, in trunk behind dash, behind glove box. And are all the slots in each fuse box getting power? With the age of your vehicle it is possible to have corrosion in and under the box or wires that look good but are broken. All this requires testing to eliminate each possibility.

22,320

Many cluster fuses are in box behind dash from your description of cluster not working.

60

K battery been checked an alternate fuses been checked but the big relays how you do that

2 people found this helpful.
22,320

How to correctly test a relay by Ratchets and Wrenches on YouTube. Better watching than me confusing you explaining. https://youtu.be/ire7vyDqelg

60

Why door lock want work with cranked but turn off an the will work

1 people found this helpful.
22,320

Too low of voltage to run other things in car while it is running. This is an obvious issue. If you got the correct volts on battery while car was running, are you sure you bought the correct amperage alternator? I would also check all your ground wires. Body grounds, engine grounds, grounds on your alternator, any fusable links. Something is zapping your alternator power once it is generated. Clean contacts...sand or grind them to bare metal if necessary, no rust connections

22,320

I have seen where a rusted nut on an alternator connection point was a significant voltage drop affecting electrical functions in car.

1 people found this helpful.
22,320

Another good video for you to watch is by Chrisfix. How to test an alternator. Don't be fooled by the title because it shows how to test all these ground points and what the voltage drop should not exceed.

2 people found this helpful.
22,320

Do you mean the PCM (main computer)! I was thinking that also because some vehicles the PCM does control alternator output. Please for your financial sake, do all the other tests and eliminate them before going after the PCM. This is not cheap and requires reflashing to get it to work with your VIN. Very rarely can you find one with a certain VIN digit that will work with yours. It is very rare almost impossible.

2 people found this helpful.
22,320

Are you talking about the cluster? Yes I thought this also. But not sure it would cause your charging issue unless you have two issues going on.

2 people found this helpful.

I’m having this exact same problem two alternators checked everything all relays checked him hell and I even jumped him is anybody figured this out O.p

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