Friday night my alternator light came on, managed to make it home several miles away with parking lights. Assumed I had broken teh alt belt or something.

Turns out belt was fine, so I pulled the alternator and replaced the brushes, which looked very worn. Reinstalled alternator, drove around a while Sunday and things seemed OK. Drove to work Monday and same problem -- alt light NOT on but car dying, apparently electrically. Tach and speedo dropped to reading zero, clock light barely visible, etc.

Pulled alternator again and had it bench tested, and it checks out fine, twice!

Ideas?

J

 

Could be a bad ground somewhere..
year, model, engine, and transmission please

 

Sorry - It's a 91 Accord LX wagon w/ 274,000 miles. Runds like a top.

 

That was RUNS like a top, and it's a 5-speed.

 

Sounds like a bad ground or loose connection.... Start the car, let it idle till it reachs full temp then pull the negative battery cable, the car should continue to run just fine, now check the output to the battery with a voltmeter, if that all checks out then you most likely have a bad connection somewhere and (doubtfull but...) possibly a bad battery

 

Thanks - will try that. I don't know if I can get it to run until warm, as the problem makes it hard to keep the car running. To check the output to the battry with the voltmeter, do you mean output coming off the positive terminal or coming into the battery from somewhere else?

Assuming it's a bad ground or loose connection, any tips of how to find where it is?

Thank you.