1987 accord lxi. 145k . stock. had the battery light come on .checked voltage at battery. 12.25v . changed out alternator with remanufactured alternator . what a chore . ( next time i will pull air box). fired up car and at first had 13.85v . after about 5 minutes it was reading 11.99. pulled battery and had load tested. good but low charge. not sure what else it could be . any ideas or suggestions is greatly appreciated. grounds look good. this is my daughters car and she is driving me nuts about it. thanks in advance.

 

is the battery light off now?

 

No battery light still on. After posting i remembered that this happened b4.and ot was the junk battery from batteries plus. Changed it out and all was well . Will go and raise hell about it.will post results after changing out. Thx ly

 

Let us know how it turns out. If the battery tests good, we have a few more ideas/tests.

The 3rd gen LXi are the easy ones on this gen....as you said, pull the air box off the back of the intake and the alt comes right out......the DX and LX - carb - are not as easy but can be done - me because of doing them a few times, I can have the alt out in 15~20 min....once that dang plastic under tray is off .

Again, I know the alt is not easy to get to but if you can get a volt meter onto the "post" of the alt and read the voltage that would be great.

 

ok last post was on my "smart phone " . yep another dummy with a smart phone . the "ly ". was not supposed to be there. lol. ok new battery is in and the battery light is still on . ideas? . do i go + lead of voltmeter to post , and negative to gnd ? and what kind of voltage should i be reading/. thx again . voltage regulator? voltage at battery with car running was 12.20v

 

not charging, not uncommon for remanf. alternators to be bad out of the box. you could check fuse 21, 70amp in the underhood fuse/relay box too. regulator is built into the alternator.

 

checked alternater voltage to gnd . got 11.89-11.92. so i will WAG( wild *** guess) that alternator is shot . oh yeah