smelled something hot so i shut it down popped the hood ,all guags were fine. Look over the engine. A little smoke was coming from the alenator. Called my brother (diesel mechanic) he said well your altenator is going bad or one battery is dead and the altenator is over working itself. Not trying to say he is wrong cause i would put my truck in his hands anyday. Would you guys agree?

 

you have the ND alt? i just tried to rebuild mine then ended up replacing it. i've read that it's usually the brushes that wear out first and that the diode plate almost never fails, but after i replaced my brushes to no effect, not knowing i could get a cheap replacement diode plate, i bought a new alt and when i took my old one apart again i found that the diode plate looked like it had melted or corroded around the contacts. not sure what's causing yours to smoke, but that's what happened with mine.

 

Anythings possible , to find a problum test , load test batteries , load test Alt.
It may be too late for that Alt.
If the battery get disconnected then the Alt. will run full charge , thats ok but not for long .

 

well i went to auto zone today to see if was my altenator or battery. They said that they could not get a reading because the wiring box that bolts on to the back of the alernator wasn't reading correctly, and that I would have to get it from a dealer. So i drove to the dealer and they told me that I just could not get the box, I would have to bu yall the wiring that is under the hood costing a grand total of 900 dollars. Now I am checking with junk yards to see if they have one.

 

[QUOTE=cowboys toys]well i went to auto zone today to see if was my altenator or battery. They said that they could not get a reading because the wiring box that bolts on to the back of the alernator wasn't reading correctly, and that I would have to get it from a dealer. So i drove to the dealer and they told me that I just could not get the box, I would have to bu yall the wiring that is under the hood costing a grand total of 900 dollars. [/QUOTE

Ya gotta love those dealers. Anything to give a guy a hand.

 

Its sounds like a wire before or after that block of rubber that the wires go through , if thats so you could just cut the wires before the block of rubber , then crimp connectors on the individual wires and put back on the ALT.
But lets back up and start at the begining ,
Lets test you system , first and only do the repairs that are needed,
Disconnect the wires on the back of the ALT , then reconnected just the larger batt cable and the ground wire , then use jumper wires to connect the 2 small wires [ one goes to the computor { becouse thats were the alt reg is} and the other wire goes to the batt ] , it doesn't matter whitch of these two is jump to were as long as its the 2 connectors at the back of the alt, but one needs to be connected to ground and the other connected to the batt + then with the eng. running check the voltage , it should be about 14 1/4 - 14 1/2 , if the alt is working , do this for a short time , becouse that is whats called full fielding , meaning that the alt is running at max and that was your origanal problum I thought,
if you do not see over 14 volts then check your jumper wires , one needs batt + and the other needs a good ground.
If yours is like mine was , the alt worked when jumped but not hooked up , it had an intermited connection to batt + , the one going to the computor does not usally go bad unless its the wiring to the computor .
I some how hit the wrong buttons on my keyboard and ended up with this bold type.

 

hey every oil change u need to check that alternator fluid..... see what happens when u dont change ur fluids