Pulsating lights

[slade]

2002 Lincoln LS - V8
I changed my altenator in the car last year and it has been fine until the lights started pulsing and the battery giving me trouble. After a few jumps, I took the battery to Autozone for a test. It failed. So I replaced the battery. The autozone guy told me I had a small battery in the car. I could not afford the battery they were trying to sell me. So he gave me a 34-DL. Car starts fine but I still have my problem.

Problem: Lights randomly pulsate. During the pulsating the car acts like it is not getting charged. Everything starts diming likes its losing power. Then Hell breaks lose, Breaklight, Blinker light warning, Check engine light, Charging system warning; all turn on. NOW, I turn off my radio and any thing drawing power it seems to recharge everything and then the pulsating stops.

Sometimes the check charging light randomly pops on and off. Its not fun watching all the lights go crazy and makes my passengers think my car is gonna explode.

I have not taking a multimeter to it.

Any help will be awesome. I'm a novice/intermediate at fixing cars but I can muttle through what ever you all say.

 

[rwurst918]

Check the ground to the alternator to see if it was tightened properly. Maybe you have a bad alternator. Where did you get the alternator from?

 

[oddball]

Be mindful that an alternator attempting to charge a bad battery can easily kill the alternator.
Definitely check it with a multimeter.

 

[tireman]

alternator failure

I have an 01, all the lights started coming on when the alternator started to fail. When it finally died, all the lights came on and it left me in a parking lot 20 miles from home. It was the alternator. So I went to Autozone and got another one, a rebuilt alt. Damn thing lasted 6 months and it died too! Autozone did replace it with a NEW not a rebuilt unit because they were embarrassed about the quick failure.

 

[slade]

Ok... i will have my alternator checked. I think it was charging a bad battery though. So this maybe my current problem.