sam, have you tried the "the old screwdriver test?" with the engine running take a screwdriver and on the backside of alt. (block side) touch tip to center where bearing is and see if you have magnetic draw. that will help determine if the problem lies within unit or wiring. unit could have sticky brush/s. good luck!

 

I'm trying to get them on the phone again, to verify if they have any resistance on the excite wire, which appears to be required to tell this regulator to fire up the output. My measurements say no.

my test light only has <2o ohms of resistance, and I need 560ish.

sam

 

Hi Sam,

Troubleshooting is fun but it's even funner over the internet - don't you think?

Here are two silly questions: First, are you sure the alternator is grounded (you didn't paint the engine and insulate the mounting point of the alternator or anything) and second, why not just hook it up the way it was when it was working. The EZ wire is fairly generic and should support that.

OK now questions: I'm not sure where we got a "Yellow/Black" wire from - Is that the wire carrying your power from the alternator (shown in red above) to the starter solenoid (or in your case to the battery post).

Your latest drawing agrees with mine except, the Yellow/white wire on yours has it running from the "A" position on the alternator plug to the starter solenoid battery lug. Mine has it running to the Fuse box instead. If you had it working like this befrore then that's probably not a factor. That is a good drawing and it should work.

You said: "You'll note that in the Ford diagram above, the Alternator Battery output and the regulator A terminal are connected AND Alt Power is there too.. which is how I have it wired, EXCEPT that I ALSO have these tied to the actual battery lead."

Ok we need to forget about the Ford drawing above. That is for an older style charging system with an EXTERNAL regulator - apples and oranges. The really nice one you have for the Mustang alternator wiring is probably the one to use.

I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say you also have it tied to the actual battery lead. If you mean you are running the charging wire from the Alternator up to the battery post instead of the "Batt" lug on the starter solenoid that doesn't matter because the battery cable from the battery is hooked to the "batt lug" on the starter solenoid. So electrically they are all hooked together anyway. But your not running two wires - one to the battery post and another to the starter solenoid - right?


Frankly, at this point I'd probably disconnect the easy wire for the charging system alone and seperately rewire it the way you had it before you had the EZ wire in there, check it for function. If it works leave it. If it doesn't then something has changed that isn't the wiring.

Check all your grounds and fuses.

I'm at a loss on this one....I have to go run some errands, I'll think on it a bit and check back in later.

J!

 

yellow/Blk comes from the alternator harness plug. same place the green/red wire comes from. these match the external regulator wiring designations.

If you look at the initial drawing of the 3G alt, you'll notice that the regulator isn't really 'internal', its just attached to the alternator. the same wire labels exist.

anyhow, I'm pretty sure now that the cause of all this is the lack of the resistance trigger on the alt-excite lead.

I just confirmed with EZWire that there is no resistance load on the excite wire.. thus no need for output..

I think there was a test procedure that verified this.. will go find again..

sam

and, as for 'over the internet' debugging, I personally can't imagine any other way to locate a group of people that can constructively work thru random issues like this.
its SO nice to have someone to ASK.

 

Ah!

And that would be the 510 or 560 ohm (depending on which installation drawing you are looking at) resistor hooked in parallel with the idiot light coming from your 20 amp "hot run in" (or on Alternator Drawing, to the ignition switch which is what my drawing shows as well ...6 of 1, half dozen of another.....).

Every drawing I see has resistance in that wire. If you don't have any, Could be it! Did you have it on your previous installation and just not incorporate it into the new rewire (or was it an optional part of your kit that you didn't get)?

I used to have the Autolite Alternator with the external regulator up on the firewall. Took it off, took the regulator off, took all those wires out, and bought a "One Wire" alternator from "Tuff Stuff." One wire goes from the "Batt" terminal on the back, runs through the induction loops on the amp gauge and straight on out othe "Battery Lug" on the Starter Solenoid. That's the whole charging system. I can see now it was a good investment (at $125).

Hope this works for you, I'm out of other suggestions.

J!

PS. Yep This FTE is a great thing. Internet trouble shooting is a little bit of a challenge the same as sometimes e-mails can be so grossly mis understood. But I have to honestly say that if I were there with my meter, I'd probably just drink all your beer and not get the truck fixed anyway! These stock Ford charging systems are a ROYAL PAIN! Tee hee!

 

tada!.. amazing what one resistor can do!..

now to put it all back together again, to look nice..

the original wiring I had setup would have worked if there had been the resistor..

note that I wasn't using a charge light, so I would have had to add the resistor to the EZWire harness no matter what.
the funny part is the word 'optional' here for the charge light and by association the resistor!.. it is NOT optional..



Sam

 

Sam, that resistor is in the circuit just in case your bulb behind the idiot lite fails..
Should have mentioned it earlier...sorry, one of those things that tumbles out of the memory banks after all is said and done. Glad to hear you got straight, and like you said " where else can you bounce this kinda stuff off of like minds?"Congratulations!
Now on to the belt/Pwr steering noise....

 

yeh, the idiot lite I don't have (or plan to have!)..

off to get the first belt to test tonight

sam

 

Sam,

Congrats on finally getting something to go right.

I'm thinking more and more that you might need more of a contact patch on the crank pulley for the belt problem

Good luck
Bobby

 

Hey Sam.....



YEAH!!!!!!!!






Julie!

 

Hi Sam,
I know this is a very old thread, but I am going down the exact same path right now, and I could use some advice. With that being said, can you tell me what you used for a resistor? I am seeing 510ohm resistors with different wattage, 1/4 watt, 1/2 watt, 1 watt, 3watt, etc. Which did you use? I am assuming you just soldered it inline into the excite wire?

 

yes, indeed, a slightly older topic!!!..

I don't exactly remember, but I'm pretty sure 1/4 watt would do .. its to make sure there is a difference between the battery lead and the exciter lead.

yes, soldered inline, then put heat shrink over it.

 

Thank you, Sam!