Hey, This is big time newb style ? my "GEN" light lit up on the dash of my 2nd gen 1997 12v This means that my Alternator is on its way out and I need to pick up a new one

 

That means the alternator is not charging. Does the tach work?

 

Wow. I haven't seen a Gen light since my dad traded in our old 64 Biscayne.

 

Saw that come on on the 2500 once after driving through a couple miles of near-flooded road... was wondering the same thing .

Let it dry out and that fixed the problem.

 

mine came on and went off a few times on the 97. after about a week of that it came on and stayed on. I went for a week without doing anything. It was still starting fine but the volt meter told a story of a dead alternator so I replaced it and the Gen light went off.

Chris

 

dont condem the alt yet, check the wires for resistance, those can go bad and cause that issue

 

Yeah, I second that. Check the wires.... My mustang use to do this till I fixed it right.

 

On my 97 the generator has a big fuse in the PDC on drivers side fender (the black box with a snap off cover). Make sure the fuse is not blown. Pull off the PDC cover and turn it over. You will see a description of each fuse location. It is the weird looking fuse on the PDC end toward the engine behind the big red wires coming in on a nut/stud. The red wire comes from the the alt. Any other symptoms like no MIL light or no tach may point to CPS or PCM. Are all other idiot lights and gages working when key is turned on....I mean the light check which verifies all the lights on instrument panel are good when key is first turned on.

If no other symptions exist then concentrate on the wiring and connections from/to the alt...like the fuse. Then suspect the alt itself. Be aware that most autoparts places mis-diagnose the alt because ours does not have a built in regulator. They will tell you the regulator is not working....duh...it does not have a regulator. The regulation is done externally by the PCM computer and the CPS (Crank position Senser) must be working first. Its worth it to verify the wiring before having the alt tested since it may be mis-diagnosed as bad anyhow.

 

Had mine come on while towing on a 600 mile trip. Turned out it was the salt and crud in the trailer light socket causing the draw. Cleaned it out, and it was fine the rest of the trip.