Today my Third alternator died on me. after having numerous problems with it in the past (belving it is all connected to a bad connector, arcing to ground) I replaced that, life was good for about a week. Today i was driving home and suddenly my radio starts flickering and my wipers start getting slower.. and slower... and slower.. My alternator stopped charging at certain RPM's And something peculiar happened. Instead of my alternator light illuminating, I thought my e-brake light was just randomly going off because of a loose switch, Easy fix nothing detrimental to the car. But i noticed that everytime the car would move back into the range where it would charge the battery, the brake light would go off.. And eventually the brake light never went off And the battery ceased to charge anymore. Is it just me or am i unlucky? I have no idea what this problem is now..

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Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

As long as they would add one additional commandment for you to keep thy religion to thyself.
George Carlin (Wonder where he is now..)

1981 240d (engine donor 1983 240d) recently rebuilt engine hurray! - No more.. fought a tree and the tree won.

pearl black 1983 240d 4speed (Converted!@$$%) atleast the tranny was rebuilt.

An alternator needs a battery or at least a significant load. If the leads are loose, it can burn up the regulator. Similarly, if your battery leads are not secure (it probably wouldn't start), it could cause the alternator to fail.

When I was selling Fiats, we had a problem with burning up throttle cables and sometimes clutch cables. Turned out the engine grounds were installed on a painted surface, and the engine starting current was going through the clutch cable and throttle cable. Odd things sometimes cause electrical failures.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

i checked the regulator brush pack tonight, they look fine. I have no idea what is causing this. im getting absolutely no load from or any output whatsoever from the alternator, im betting that something is burnt out inside.

__________________
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

As long as they would add one additional commandment for you to keep thy religion to thyself.
George Carlin (Wonder where he is now..)

1981 240d (engine donor 1983 240d) recently rebuilt engine hurray! - No more.. fought a tree and the tree won.

pearl black 1983 240d 4speed (Converted!@$$%) atleast the tranny was rebuilt.

Is it possible there is an abnormal amount of vibration going on or (the alternator is mounted low) is any water or snow getting thrown up into it.
How about something like this. I worked for a school district and had several vehicles come in that had multiple light bulbs dead randomly around the vehicle (the dash lights to). I could not figure out why this was happening so frequently (on my own cars I might replace 1 bulb per year 1 headlight per 2-3 years). The hint was in one of the vehicles I found water inside of the turnsignal light lense.
Several years later at another job I was telling this story to my Boss who I had just started working for again after many years. He had a contract with Texaco oil company to do some mechanic work. As it turned out the Oil company was having the same problem. It was being caused by them washing their vehicles with a hose and directing the stream of the hose at the lights and other electrical parts. The cars were hosed of daily if not twice a day and water was getting into the electrical connections.
I am saying this as I notice that cloth type insulation on my 84 while intact looks dried up and crumbly I really doubt if they are waterproof. If there is any water getting into your wires it could be causing electrical problems.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

i checked all my connections, they are fine. All blinkers and such work. and i dont think that would cause my alternator to quit putting out electricity..

__________________
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

As long as they would add one additional commandment for you to keep thy religion to thyself.
George Carlin (Wonder where he is now..)

1981 240d (engine donor 1983 240d) recently rebuilt engine hurray! - No more.. fought a tree and the tree won.

pearl black 1983 240d 4speed (Converted!@$$%) atleast the tranny was rebuilt.

Fair enough. When you find the problem please post it.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel