Dies when clutch is pressed

[Mrp0ck3t5]

So I just bought my 89 galant and it drove great for about a month and a half then started having issues where it started to jerk while in gear and eventually died I took it to someone they firmly believed my issue was in my batter starter and alternator and being it was an older car I had planned on doing these soon anyway. So I switched out all three and it began to start just fine then the idle dropped drastically and now when I drive if I hit the clutch the idle hits down to almost 100 in most cases it dies and then won't restart without a jump and this is with new battery and everything installed what could be wrong???

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

You need to properly check your charging system. sounds like you're just running off the batt till it's out of juice. I'd start there.

 

[Mrp0ck3t5]

Shouldn't the new alternator fix that it's literally a week old? where should I start in the charging system I'm new to working on cars

 

[MellowVR4]

Depending where you bought the alternator it could have a failed regulator. Aftermarket alt's usually have shitty regulators that fail because they cant take the heat from the turbo. I Got mine rebuilt with a good regulator and haven't had an issue since.

 

[EfiniX]

+10 on the regulator. I had a new alternator putting out weird voltage. Never below 13.1v, but erratic up to 14v while driving. I put in a downpipe heat shield and it immediately started working correctly.

 

[r4pt0x]

Quote:

+10 on the regulator. I had a new alternator putting out weird voltage. Never below 13.1v, but erratic up to 14v while driving. I put in a downpipe heat shield and it immediately started working correctly.



14.4V is the normal upper regulator voltage. Normal voltage with healthy battery should be ~13.8-14.3V at 2000rpm+ depending on actual load (headlamps, heated mirrors/rear window etc....) and battery state of charge.
But yes, these old self-regulated alternators die quite often because of the heat and relatively fast rpm changes. The only solution for the latter would be an ECU-controlled alternator from the later mitsubishi models (4-pin connector) and engine ECU which takes care of the alternator regulation. But the aftermarket/refurbished alternators usually take 2-3 years of heavy beating and aren't that expensive. im also using the 2-pin alternator despite the evo 7/8 ECU. Just make sure to get a nippon denso alternator - they offer by far the best quality and reliability and are still quite cheap as refurbished/aftermarket parts (~100-150 euro here in germany compared to >500 for MMC part)


If the engine idles fine and only struggles as soon as the clutch is pressed it sounds more like a worn/died axial crankshaft bearing (aka "crankwalk"). Check the center main bearing and - if installed - get rid of the clutch switch. The *major* reason the axial bearings are dying is this idiotic "press-clutch-to-start" thingy, because with this the axial bearing is _heavily_ loaded while the engine has absolutely NO oil pressure during startup, so the bearing is directly rubbing against the crankshaft without any oil film.
The only 4G63 engines I've seen here with failed axial bearings were on eclipse D20/30 which only cranked with pressed clutch pedal (well, except one evo 2 engine wich was raced at a rally directly after rebuild still with the break-in oil in it...). Most of them also had clutches with high pressure covers, so the axial load on the crankshaft was further increased.
None of them had any more bearing failure after the clutch pedal switch was shortened or the system otherwise deactivated and I also haven't seen any crankwalk on an old 4G6 engine in any lancer/colt/galant/L300/... which all don't have this system here.

 

[thomcasey]

If you want your parts store alternator to last, either heat wrap your downpipe or relocate it to the AC position with the Jay Racing relocation kit. I have over 3 years on on two different parts store alternators. I was killing them within a couple weeks (the regulator gets hot and soft due to the 3" downpipe) due to sagging regulators. The last two free replacements like both the wrapped downpipe (on my colt) and the relocation kit (talon).

The design of the alternator is really at fault. It does not have external cooling blades, and the internal blades for cooling pull air from the backside, where the downpipe lives. So, unless you have the factory pipe with shields, wrap that sucker to save the alternator.