Topic: my jeep will not charge!

[WillyGrubbs]

My jeep started today and I ran it for about a half hour. I was changing the rear gear oil and doing some other maintenance.  I tried to start it again and it was dead. And it would not start. This had happened once before when I got it out of the body shop and it had been sitting for a while, about a month. So when it happened this time I decided to go ahead and buy a good new battery since I was going to be running allot of lights and possibly a wench soon. So I got an optimum battery and a new set of battery terminal cables as well. I got the new cables installed and hooked up the battery and it started but it was rough, rougher than the old battery. I let it run for a while and noticed the battery gauge was in the red zone and it was not charging. So I took the old alternator out and took  it to the auto store and got a new one.  I put the new alternator on and got a jump start. It started right away and the gauge read around 13 for about 5 minutes after  I took the jumper cables off and then dropped off into the red again and stopped charging.
I have no idea what to do. I checked all the cables I changed again and again and looked carefully over all my work carefully. I have no idea what to do. Help!!!! Please.

Thanks.
Willy

[chardrc]

wow.. i have nothing to say other than good luck fixing it... usually its either battery or alternator but you've covered both of those so my only guess would be the computer.

[Jesse-James]

Did you put a meter on either alt. to see what the output voltage was? First place I would start.

[WillyGrubbs]

No, I was using the meter in the dash of the jeep. But now that you mention it I will go to auto zone today to see if they can hook it up and check it.

[Sidscan]

Check your battery ground wire.  I'll bet your problem is related to that. 

[Tall Boy]

prior to spending your life savings on fixing it (we've all done it some point in our lives) you just take your multi-meter, switch it to volts and test it from the - + leads on the battrey and see if the alternator is pushin 12-13 volts. It sounds like it may be a bad ground and the multi-meter will tell you because it won't go to zero/or take a reading at all.   

[dragon51]

I had the same issue and it ended up being the the alternator fuse under the hood both of them were blown.

[WillyGrubbs]

i just got it fixed today. it needed a new computer (150 bucks) and and now it runs like new. the power management part of my computer was burnt out.

[Jesse-James]

Good to hear you got it going.

[jeepheap]

check your starter. it may sound dumb but i've known guys who have had a bleed on the starter which caused the computer to fry. found out on the second batt and computer, after switching the alt and all the wires on charging system on one rig. that wasn't cheap, and all along it was the starter.

[chardrc]

darn computers in cars