Let's ask a question and never return. lol.

Well said. I've asked for (and received) a ton of help and advice here, but sometimes it's just impossible to put it to work right away. I'd love to be able to spend all day every day under the hood, but that won't pay the bills. The reality is that many of us are juggling full time jobs while maintaining our homes and personal relationships, and sometimes the car just has to wait.

I hope I'm not one of these guys the thread is about, I really do try to update my threads as I make progress and use the advice given.


And I want to learn to "fish." Anyone with a ratchet can swap an alternator, but knowing how to troubleshoot and figure out that the alternator needs to be replaced is so much more valuable.
You'll know it when the lights dim and the car dies while driving down the road.
The alternator if functioning correctly will power the car with a dead battery to at least run. When it runs fine but won't crank over worth a fk or at all= dead battery/bad cell or connection resistance issue*
Easier and less a pita would be a volt meter at the batt , 13.5 -14.8 is the range of good working order. Grease monkey and diagnostic monkey are two different classes of monkey. One carefully scratches through to find the bugs... the other just throws poop aka money at it and has a conniption fit when it does go vroom vroom.