alternator battery or something else?

OK.. i'm having the wierdest thing going on w/ my truck.. and hopefully someone will have some insight as to whats going on. About a week and a half ago while i was at work.. i noticed i was gradually loosing more and more power as i started my truck.. well.. as soon as i went to go home.. dead battery. Got a jump.. lost more and more power as i went home.. next day dead. So i figured it was the alternator.. took it out.. cleaned it up and put it back in.. ran GREAT up until today. Started loosing more and more power gradually.. the more i started.. the less power i had. So.. anyone know whats up? If it starts tomarrow i'm going to discount auto parts and have them run a check on my battery.. WHICH WAS JUST CHECKED about a month ago to be good. I'm leaning more towards alternator but then again it could be something else. Thanks for any input and help.
mike

why not take it and have the alt checked thay can do that now with it still on the truck

yea get the alt checked, also check the batt ground...mine tends to come loose sometimes

Likely its your alternator man.. Do you have a voltmeter or a multimeter? If you do.. check the voltage present at your battery with the engine off. Will probably read around 12.7volts. Then start the engine and check again.. if your alternator is putting out power.. you should get a reading of around 14.2 volts. If you are getting a reading of less than 13.5 volts.. your alternator is failing. Maybe a blown diode in it or maybe the windings got overheated and are breaking down.. (rare but has been known to happen). You can also get it checked at any autoparts store for free. A remanufactured one will run you $120 or so.. a brand new one will run you $160 or so. Rebuilding your alternator would run $80 or so depending on the shop you take it too. A junkyard special.. $15-$50 depending on the junkyard. Best of luck man.

Tunes67

I have a volt meter.. but when its working.. its working.. and when its not its not.. i just can't decifer if its a bad cell or what.. My ground wire seems LOOSE as hell also.. so i'm going to look into getting a new spade clip for it.. and see if that fixes my problem.
Mike

Yeah a loose battery cable could cause that kind of symptom as well LOL But you didnt mention that before LOL

Tunes67

hey i dont know if the loose neg was the problem but when my alt was going i just started the truck pulled the pos terminal off the battery and if it shut off that told me it was the alternator that was bad. you dont have to buy any special tool or take it to a shop.

thats a good point.. will do that tomarrow after the battery gets charged again.

im not sure on these or not but on some unhooking the alt like that can cuase it to mess it up the alt it would be best just to take it to autozone and have them check it.its free and only takes a few sec and you wont run the risk of messing up the alt if it is one that will

also check 2 see if there is any corrosion around the terminal...i had that problem with my daily driver