I have put a brand new battery and new alternator in my bronco but my battery is being drained of all juice fairly quick and its not getting charged. I took the wire off the alternator and checked each one and cleaned them all. I can't seem to find what is drawing the power. Please help

 

Put a volt/amp meter on your battery with the key off and see what it reads.

 

It was reading 11.67 and dropping. I know that's not to bad but it just doesn't seem that the alternater is charging. Seems like some thing is drawing the power when I'm driving

 

You have a parasitic drain somewhere. If its dropping fast with key off you have a serious electrical drain.

 

It doesn't dropp fast with the key off just on. We checked all the wires from alternated to the battery and they were all good

 

Has it been doing this before the new alternator and battery? And if so, did you do anything else to your Bronco (speakers cd player etc)? If you didn't it may be time to get some new cables.

This probably won't be the case for your situation, but the first thing I did to my truck was put in an instrument cluster from a 95 bronco with a tachometer (because I have a 5 speed and my truck didn't have a tach). I have a 96 Bronco. There was a slight wiring difference from the two years and that caused my alternator to not charge the battery. After getting a 96 cluster, it fixed the problem.

I have had a new alternator be bad before too. It's pretty rare but it does happen. I know you said you checked the battery, but did you have the alternator tested too?

From what I remember with the battery, I believe you want it around 13.5.

 

I actally inherited the vehicle not long ago. So not sure about the history on it. But I took all the stereo system stuff out my dad had in it. I did just put a new cluster in that was a different year. Ide never if thought that could cause this kinda problem.

 

11.67 VDC on a battery with no load is not very good. A good battery should be putting out 12.75 - 13.25 VDC with no load. (Some are even higher but no more than about 14.1).

To verify the battery output accurately, especially if you suspect a phantom load that is draining it, disconnect it completely before taking your voltage reading.

Several things could be causing the drain. If the most notable drain is with the key ON, engine OFF, most the of the circuits in the truck should have power at that time which makes troubleshooting a bit more tedious if there is nothing electrical obviously running. i.e. radio, blower fan. The fuel pump should run briefly to prime the system when the key is turned on but should then stop. (I mention this because fuel pump relays are known to stick when they fail leaving the fuel pump to run beyond the point of priming).

 

I know that a 1996 cluster isn't compatible with any year but 96, but I am not sure how 95s are.

If you remember what year cluster you put it, I would definitely try and look up and see if it's compatible with yours. When I put the 1995 cluster in my 96, everything seemed to work fine, but it had a very small drain that took me about a week to figure out.

Alright just looked this up before I finished posting:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...atibility.html

"Speedo changed to electronic in '92. 92-93 clusters will only work in 92-93 trucks and Broncos, and 94-96 will work only on 94-96 trucks and Broncos. That is without wiring modifications."

However that is partly wrong. Like I said, 96 is a special year and needs its own so there are three different possibilities. 92-93, 94-95 or 96.

Basically you need to make sure you cluster was either from a 94 or 95 truck otherwise I wouldn't be surprised if your drain is coming from that new cluster like it was with mine so long ago.

 

Sure enough it was the cluster. I still have the old 95 cluster swapped them back out and tested the conection again with the multimeter and i now hove a charge. Its now reading in the 13.90 to 14.00 range.Thank you to everyone for the help. Now i just need to find a new 95 clustrr that works.

 

Sure enough it was the cluster. I still have the old 95 cluster swapped them back out and tested the conection again with the multimeter and i now hove a charge. Its now reading in the 13.90 to 14.00 range.Thank you to everyone for the help. Now i just need to find a new 95 clustrr that works.

 

I should still have the 95 cluster I bought back in 07. Everything worked at the time I had it except I swapped out some of the lights since they were out on mine but should have extra bulbs. I could look around the house and see if I can find it.

Edit: Oh shoot.. I found it but someone wrote 93 f-150 on the top. I could have sworn it was a 95. I don't know if there is a way to check the actual year by the number on the back because I'm pretty sure it was listed as a 95 when I bought it so maybe someone wrote something down wrong on the top of it.

Edit 2: Upon referencing with this post: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...her-years.html

"The Ford part numbers start with the decade, E = the 80's, F is the 90's. The next is the year, F2 = 1992.
My spare cluster that I took out of a 1995 has these numbers.
The plastic housing is F2UF-10848-AA, the plastic clear front is F2UF-10B885-AA and the foil has F4TF-10C956-B on it.
The paper tape at the top is blank."

I believe the cluster I have is indeed at 95 because it has the F2UF-10848-AA on the plastic. Maybe I'm wrong though.

 

That would be awesome. None of the junk yard out here have any 95s and the ones that do have been stripped clean of interior. I have plenty of bulbs between the two clusters I have

 

Is the original radio still in there???