Hey guys sorry its been a while been pretty overwhelmed.

I was traveling for work down a bumpy country road for about 15 miles when I pull into this little town ive got no power, headlights may aw well be off and it just putters to a stop. Ive had this problem in many cars. Its alternator. I have my grandfather picl one up for me and come out with some tools and I change it right there. Got a jump and that was not the problem. Repeatedly jumped it to get it home the next day. Once I got into town it was fine but you could see headlight get bright and dim out after hitting bumps. I found little exposed copper on the control wires that go to altanator so I went to junk yard and picked up another one. Hooked it up and let car run for 45 mins w headlights on and it never died. Drove all day and night and all day today just fine till I went to pick up food. Barely got it home. Had altanator tested 2 times threw all this new one is good. Any ideas?

Tl; DR
Battery died
New alt
Still died
Short in contol wires
Replace
Fine for 2 days died again
???

 

Although you're describing symptoms, I'm not reading that you've done any real testing.

Have you checked your battery voltage?

Have you checked alternator charging voltage?

Have you tested your alternator charge cable continuity?

Done any voltage drain testing?

 

As Turbobink said, You need to do some diagnosing. Another thing to check is the battery cable connections. The wire going into the connector corrodes and can cause intermittent connections.

 

Your connection at the battery terinmals could be coming loose while driving, common issue on 4th gens as they get older. Id start at getting battery terminal sleeves to ensure nice strong connection as you go to tighten the terminals. You can get them at autozone for about 3 bux.

 

Check inside the outer covering of the battery cables for hidden corrosion. And of course make sure all your grounds are good, including the one under the battery tray.

 

Every time I tested it, it passed. But at those times it was running right. Just above 12v sitting just above 14v. running the battery on its own failed the drain test. But it holds a charge fine. No noticeable drain while its off (I took out all non essential fuses) I dont know how to check when its running, and charging cable checks out.

This is like a random on off like the altanator is not working. If I unhook battery while running it will drive around fine untill whatever is causing the issue (short, wire disconnecting, etc) then it will just shut down (its a stick) and wont pop-start. it randomly starts working again after a jump and driving around a bit usually, other times battery just starts draining again.

 

I replaced the ground cable last year. And ive checked for corossion and connection since this started happening. There was a little on the positive terminal. And i replced both terminal connectors when I replaced grounds

 

Inside the plastic? Not sure what you mean...

 

The other members mean that there might be corrosion anyplace the connectors attach to the cables. Also anywhere the cables attach to other things. The corrosion creates electical resistace, or lack of a good electrical contact. That is the probable reason for your problems.

I always check for corrosion and oxidation of contacts before I buy expensive parts like an alternator or battery. Often a bit of contact cleaner and some sandpaper will solve the problem.

 

All the connections are clean. Like I said there was a small ammount on pos terminal. I cleaned it with a wire brush.

 

Yes, inside the plastic casing of the cable. I had a cable some years ago that looked OK, but there was corrosion that had worked its way up the cable inside the housing.

 

I pealed the plastic back a bit. Nice and shiney. I thought you were saying inside the battery lol. Ive been driving wifes van had my hands full with work.I think I found the problem. Will take pics and post results hopefully later today

 

It was not the area I suspected. There is some oil inside the one connector. Gonna clean it out and seal with tape. And try again. I believer is the generator wire on the alt.. if I was to run a switch and fuse to that wire and to manually become the 'voltage regulator' is that something that could work?

 

Had it running.. seems like once it got warm it would charge 3-4 seconds then drain 3-4 seconds. Over n over I was playing with wires and nothing made it better or worse. When I was playing with the positive terminal I accidently pulled it off amd it was in the process of draining so car shut off.. battery was too dead to restart. Starer? Any other ideas?

 

So while the car was running, you had a voltmeter/multi-meter connected to the battery terminals/posts and for ~3-4 seconds you'd get meter readings that indicated that the battery was being properly charged ... then for ~3-4 seconds you'd get meter readings indicating that the battery was being drained.

Is my interpretation of your description correct?

 

My voltomiter went out dropped it n screen broke ill buy another one later today. I had the headlights on and you could watch them dim out for 3-4 seconds and brighten back up 3-4 seconds. You could hear the car struggle when it was discharging. Something is drawing a lot of power but only for a few seconds at a time

 

A little more info to add... fans are hotwired to run as long as ignition is on... not sure why...when headlights are on window controls get screwy..its always done that but only recently noticed it was because lights were on. I have aftermarket head lights and tail lights. I wired the headlights myself. Shared ground between the 2 bulbs then the wires to each one for power. The only thing I can think of thats changed since this started is that I think one of the fans was dead when I bought the car...and they both spin now...

 

I guess, having now learned all of this, I'm not quite sure why your initial question needed to be asked ...