Hondas_Only

Like the title says, a lady from my church came in yesterday and said her battery light was flashing on and off and her digital gauges were flickering. i noticed a whining coming from the alternator area so i checked the voltage on the battery and it was about 12.6 off and about 16 when it was running so i assumed the alternator was good but maybe have been starting to wear out.

long story short, later that day the car died. no power whatsoever. any other possibilities besides the alternator?

i really havent done much work on fords, but i assume that an alternator is an alternator. anyone have experience with crown vics that can give me some advice on how to proceed with helping her? the alternator is front mounted so im assuming it should be easy enough but i dont see a belt tensioner anywhere. is it underneath?

thanks in advance for any and all advice

Fabrik8

Alternators often are their own tensioners; they sometimes mount on a hinged bracket and a slotted bracket, so the alternator turns on the bracket to tension the belt, and then the bolts are tightened down all the way. Depends on the car though, there may be an accessory tensioner somewhere else.

Check for a bad grounds or corroded cables/connections before you blame the alternator. If you checked voltage at the battery, you're also including the cables and ground points in your diagnosis, so make sure you fully understand what you're looking at.

Lord Humongous

That's what mine did...

It's the alt.

91 Hatch

sounds like the regulator is bad in it. 16 volts charging is too high, should be around 13.5-14.5. Its ran off a serpentine belt, there is a tensioner near the bottom towards the left