I just got my truck back from the body shop(I had my tailgate shaved). My truck was there for two weeks. When I arrived at the shop, the body guy said every couple of days when they started up the truck to work on it, it started really hard. He asked me if my battery was old or if anything was drawing on the battery. This all came to a shock to me because the battery is new and I had never experienced this hard start before.

Now the other part to this story is when I started up the truck, I heard a strange noise that was not there when I dropped the truck off. It sounds like it's coming from the alternator. When I was driving the truck home, I noticed this noise changed with the RPM's.

Are these tow things related? Is my alternator going bad? I'm bringing the truck into my mechanic Monday to test the alt., but in the meantime, can anybody give me some opinions on what is going on??

thanks,
Josh

 

Well, an alternator might be the problem. I had a car that the alternator went out on (3 times ) If you went to a drive through for instance and you sat in line to long it would die because it wasn't generating any juice at low rpm's. The bad alternator(s) caused the battery to die too, so the battery was replaced a couple times. A shop should be able to tell you if the alternator is bad. If it is then buy a NEW one. The main reason I had such a problem is because I was putting in a rebuilt alternator. Once I broke down and put a new factory one in I never had any more problems.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks, if it is the alt., I was thinking about getting a 200amp one at mralternator.com. But I think they are rebuilt. You think this is bad? There is a Lifetime Warranty on them...

 

Well, it could have been the brand I was getting. They only had a year warranty on the one I had problems with. I have used remanufactured parts on other things and not had any problems. If there is a lifetime warranty on it then I might take a chance on it. I can understand wanting a bigger alternator for sure. It may have been bad luck on my part that gave me the problems I had. It just sucks when you have a car that you have to drop the front wheel/suspension just to get to the alternator .

Good luck

 

Went to the mechanic today on my lunch break. Listened to the alt. through a stetescope. The bearings are bad in it and it needs to be replaced. I ordered a new one from mralternator.com. Its a 200 amp for a $225. I also got it powder coated close to Ford Blue for an extra $25. Should look good with my blue Ford Racing wires. I'll tell you how it goes. Is the install of an alt. easy? I'm going to do it myself. Oh, and I previously thought the mralternator.com alt's were rebuilds, but they're not. It is NEW.


Josh