alternator q's

[outback_pootrol]

i think its rooted to say the least, but before i go and get a new one what are some of the things i should look out for, i had a wee look at broken wires but there just isnt any, i have no warning lights coming up to tell me it shagged, i hooked a voltmeter/ammeter thing up to it and it said 12.05, i know that its not charfing but yeah just want to know if its a fuse or something like that, do they have fuses, i also have the volt gauge telling me that its at about 12-13 when im driving

its an 89 td42 pootrol with 417000klms on it

[nayto]

how do you know its not charging? Is it hard to crank over or....... From memeory my TD42 charged at about 13.2- 13.7 volts i think. Get your hands on a multimeter an check it at the battery whilst at at least 1200 revs or so. If its gettin the enough volts at the battery, id say ur battery is just shagged. IF not yeh, your up for either a regulator or alternator

[outback_pootrol]

i got a multimeter and hooked up whilst it was running at about 1000rpm, and it was still at 12ish,
its been struggling to start everymorning for a bit but sometimes it would go allright,
i now have to push start it as its dead as, but tonight i got stuck in heaps of traffic, im tearing through the main drag with no lights at all and there was cops everywhere as trees took everything out insight and heres me with no lights or nothing bar the hazzards on, as i was nearing my house the glow light came on dull and stayed on and it was at about10.5-11 v on my gauge!!!!!
and she didnt even want to start and it struggled to lock the central locking, so i may need to get a alt then

[Oscars]

sounds like ya alt, if u got no batt light on dash unplug the plug on alt andf put a test light in the skinner wire, turn ign on and make sure other end of test light is to earth. batt light should appear. if so check u got voltage to senser and heavy batt cable on alt. if u got all then its ya alt.

[outback_pootrol]

i went for a little drive and when i switched it off i tried to start it again and she fired up, so i instantly thought that its a dead cell in the batt, so down u went and got a big ass century battery and $180 later she is going again, and i have started and stopped it heaps of times and by now the battery should of gone dead if it was the alternator but shes charging it back up so i think i have solved the problem....... for now

[bazooked]

have u checked the charge rate with the new battery??