95 dodge ram 1500 v6 manual transmission voltage dips

Asked by Tim Aug 23, 2017 at 02:57 AM about the 1995 Dodge RAM 1500 LT LB RWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

So as stated in the title when ever I come to a stop or give it gas
and let it idle its rough, the voltage dips but then comes back
pretty quickly. Any ideas as to why? My posts are clean, I ran new
negative and positive wires to the battery but didn't change
everything.

6 Answers

875

Do you know what your voltage "dips" down to and what it comes back up to? Have you put a meter to it?... When the voltage comes back up, does the rough idle smooth out? When you put the new battery cables on did you change the battery terminal also? I had a very similar issue with a ford truck and I chased it all the way back to a bad battery terminal....and battery post....the battery post and terminal both were pitted and was getting an intermittent issue such as yours....food for thought

1 people found this helpful.

My average voltage is around 14 and when it dips it dips down to about 12.5 volts. Yes the idle smooths out. I did put new terminals when I changed the wires. I didn't look very closely at the posts though. Maybe I should check them. Also the battery is from 2014 so maybe its just getting old.

875

I would check voltage at the battery post....then at the battery terminal that's how I found the voltage issue with the ford... I had correct voltage at the battery terminal but not at the post...even though it was connected....Check this site it may help... troubleshootmyvehicle.com...

1 people found this helpful.

Question. If it is my post because I just remembered I used a wire wheel and a drill to clean it which was probably a bad idea, how would I fix it? Use a standard terminal wire brush?

875

I think the wire wheel was ok but can't be positive.....I would do all the tests I mentioned and see if there is a voltage issue...if not a voltage issue, I'm not sure what else with out being able to see it for myself....hope I was able to help. let me know how the voltage tests were...

1 people found this helpful.

Yeah you've given me a place to start. I did voltage tests and sure enough different voltages on the posts and terminals so I took the terminals off and I think the wire wheel did some damage and there was some pitting so I used a basic post wire brush and cleaned up the pitting. Put everything back together and voltage was finally the same across the posts and terminals. But I was still getting the voltage dip issue. Some more tests later and I now know my alternator is failing. The voltage fluctuations my mpg is going down and voltage never gets over 14 volts even on a rev up

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