I have a 89 F150 straight 6. All my wires going to the starter solenoid were put on one side (starter side). The only wire on the other was the battery cable. The problem I am having is that there are 4 yellow wires and one green. I do know that it was not like that before I took it in for an ignition cylinder replacement, but, it came out totally different. There were 3 on the starter side and 2 on the other but which is to be where? Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

welcome to FTE!!
all the wires except for the one going to the starter itself should be on the battery side of the solenoid.
otherwise the only time those wires will have power to them is when the starter is energized.

 

Got her started she ran for about 8 miles then totally quit running. Managed to burn the alternator out, replaced. Now she cranks and WILL NOT turn all the way over. There is gas in it. Had old alternator tested, it was BAD. Gas is coming to the engine and absolutely no spark. When the key is turned to ON position the interior battery gauge (gimmick gauge) is barely out of the red area. Is it possible that the battery doesn't have enought "umf" to assist in the crank over? A local mechanic assisted in the wiring hook up for no charge. He check the battery it had 14v, but with it running it went to 18v. I done the work. Even from the starter solenoid she will turn but not crank over. Any help on where to go from here will be greatly appreciated.

Problem originally was the the shop who done ignition cylinder replacement totally installed the battery and wires wrong. How she ran for the last month I have no idea. But she wasn't running the same as she did before going in there.

 

The battery should show about twelve and a half volts at rest and should never show more than fourteen and a half volts while running (and charging)

Too much charging voltage will warp the plates and boil the battery dry.
Something is very wrong here, if the 'mechanic's' meter is remotely correct.

A damaged battery can sometimes show a superficial charge, but not have enough current (amperage) to turn the truck over.
A battery load tester can determine if this is the case.

Why would a shop have any reason to even open the hood if they were tasked with replacing the ignition cylinder? (I assume you mean lock cylinder, or key switch)

 

I have no idea why, they even went under the hood!!!! I went out with my ohm meter this afternoon and tested the battery and it was reading 17.3v. Is the battery in reality actually fried? Been trouble shooting other ideas and now have to figure out how to test the ignition module. Just to be sure that nothing has happened to it.
When the mechanic tested the battery on Saturday it was reading 14.0v in rest, and 18.0v at idle. The problem started when I took her for the test drive. Didn't think about using the ohm meter myself on Saturday when I got her home. Went out today (Sunday) and tested the battery and it was reading 17.3v. Battery is also full.

 

You're positive about that 17.3v reading?

I've heard of high surface charges but that's a bit high. Even right off a hot charger, I've never seen higher than 13.8v after a few minutes rest.

If it is 17.3v, that battery is in need of a load test to see if it's toast or not. Sounds like the alternator is overcharging it now. Is this a new or rebuilt alternator?

Ray

 

Ah.
Your Multimeter...

Are there good batteries in your meter?
Most meters are just comparing the tested voltage to a reference voltage supplied by the battery in the meter.
If the meter's voltage is low it can lead to an abnormally high reading.

 

If you have another vehicle you can try your meter on it would verify that it is reading correctly

 

if the alternator is in fact charging at 16+ volts, the voltage regulator is bad.
but with the engine not running, it sounds like your meter is not accurate.
a battery should not read any higher than 13 volts fully charged with engine off.