JHZR2
Staff member
I’m trying to diagnose some issues with torque converter lockup on my Ram. They are known for having EMI issues from a number of different causes.
I rewired my batteries, and have gone through all grounds.
I wanted to test the AC ripple from my alternator. With my cheap multimeter on AC, I put leads between the alternator 12V out terminal, and ground.
I generally got 0v, or the noise of the meter. The meter did not discern a frequency for this AC, which was strange.
Occassionally, the meter would jump to 3-4V. Then immediately disappear. This was a tiny fraction of a second at most.
I had autozone test the alternator, and they clam it has passed all testing.
So my question is, if there’s a sporadic 3-4V spike, what would this be an indicator of? I don’t know that it’s real... but if it is, that could be the cause of some issues I’ve been having.
My cheap battery tester says that there’s 22mV of ripple, but again, a cheap multimeter shows effectively nothing. There must be some level of ripple, so why didn’t the meter measure it? And that cheap tester might not sample fast enough, or see a 3-4V impulse.
If some part of an alternator diode pack is going bad, what kind of AC voltage shoukd one expect?
thanks!
I rewired my batteries, and have gone through all grounds.
I wanted to test the AC ripple from my alternator. With my cheap multimeter on AC, I put leads between the alternator 12V out terminal, and ground.
I generally got 0v, or the noise of the meter. The meter did not discern a frequency for this AC, which was strange.
Occassionally, the meter would jump to 3-4V. Then immediately disappear. This was a tiny fraction of a second at most.
I had autozone test the alternator, and they clam it has passed all testing.
So my question is, if there’s a sporadic 3-4V spike, what would this be an indicator of? I don’t know that it’s real... but if it is, that could be the cause of some issues I’ve been having.
My cheap battery tester says that there’s 22mV of ripple, but again, a cheap multimeter shows effectively nothing. There must be some level of ripple, so why didn’t the meter measure it? And that cheap tester might not sample fast enough, or see a 3-4V impulse.
If some part of an alternator diode pack is going bad, what kind of AC voltage shoukd one expect?
thanks!