CZSteve

It appears my alternator crapped out.
Only registering about 10 volts on the factory volt meter.
Stopped by a jobsite this morning and truck barely started; able to at least get back to the house.

Too much work to do right now; I'll dig into the problem tomorrow.
Take the alternator in to have it checked?
What other culprits should I look at if any?

Rig has 180k and I did pro-actively change the alternator brushes about 15k ago.

Thanks
SA

cmac

another culprit could be the crank position sensor.

CZSteve

Tach is working.
If the crank sensor is a problem would the tach be out?

patdaly

Yes, as well as O/D

cmac

learn something new every day!! i'll remember that

Steve Roseman

Are you getting power to the fields? Could be ecm isn't telling alternator to charge.

Haulin_in_Dixie

No the PCM controlls charge. If it is bad put a separate regulator on it, the diagram is here in an article. I have two trucks and both are converted as well as another 20 or so we converted... Caravans, Dakotas and so on. Another tip, a Dakota alternator is generally half the cost of the Ram and the only difference is the field plug is two wires instead of a plug.

blackimpala

Mine was doing the same thing. The diode pack was bad. Had it rebuilt. Has worked fine for two years now.

Floyd

Haulin_in_Dixie

Ok, check it on the truck. There are two wires for the field. Disconnect them and on the alternator hook one to ground and the other to 12 volts. The alternator should go to full charge. If it does not the alternator is bad, if it does then the wiring or pcm is bad.

Fueling around

Have you load tested the batteries? It really sounds as you have a dead battery being you changed brushes in the alternator.
Did you turn or replace the brush slip ring?
The diode bridge rarely goes bad according to my local rebuilder.