Charging system failure

lonelytoilet

lonelytoilet

New Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2019
Messages
7
Location
norfolk virginia
My charging system decided to go and for the life of me i can't figure out the problem. Before i end up shelling out even more money to fix the issue I've probably made worse and taking it to a professionals, again. I figured i would try here as a last ditch effort. My check gauges light came on and my Ampere Gage tanked, pegged to the bottom 9. The dashboard eventually went crazy by lighting everything up, on and off rapidly. I replaced the battery thinking that could have finally died. that only extended my cars life shortly. Took it to the shop to get it checked out. they replaced the alternator but said that the voltage regulating system has failed and that they couldn't fix it. So, i decided to bypass the PCM and install an external voltage regulator for the alternator. But, alas to no avail. i'm still unable to charge the battery. I've taken a look at the actual wiring to see if it has failed and it all seems decently held together. Anyone have any ideas? BTW, it's a 2002 4L.
 
I have not, they are prally ok on account of the plugs are sealed correct? I will have to check them. Anyways I ordered an external voltage regulator kit yesterday. 65 bucks from a company in michigan, comes with a wire harness and a rf module that is suppossed to 80 percent of the time trick the computer into not pulling a no charging code. I have discovered that the volatage regulator in all chryslers from the late 90s or so are located in the pcm/ ecm so yeah.....The most common part that fails in an alt and is usually easily replaced for a few bucks or in some cases the just replace the whole alt. In the TJ case you need a new computer. so...I have had no luck finding one, only companies that offer rebuilding serveses that don't garuntee anything and still cost 100s of dollars, so yeah, lol
 
Hey thanks for the replies. I ended up over riding the pcm voltage regulator and added an external regulator.
Seems to be working so far. But now my battery is dead, so I guess it was going bad, and I know that can have a toll on a pcm. I hope that this was not a waist of time and money when all I needed was a new Batt. Oh well, don't know. I never suspected the battery, seemed to be working fine, idk maybe a quincydink lol hard to say.
 
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It's been a while since I've logged into this website as I only tend to do so when I've run into problems on my TJ. With that being said and considering that it's been a while (since this problem was solved), I'm here to do my best and follow up for anyone else who might come across this during a search for their problem. I neither diagnosed nor solved the problem myself. I had taken my car to an automotive shop that specializes in electrical work (as I no longer live there anymore, the place I specifically took it to was Tidewater Auto Electric in Norfolk Virginia). They had fairly quickly diagnosed the problem as a ground in the system due to a failed cable (I'm not 100% on this as it has been some time).
 
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