Always seems to be something..

When I started my Bronco last night all the lights were dim and the battery gauge was showing about 12.whatever volts. All my accessories feel underpowered like the truck isn't running.

Immediately, alternator sounds suspect.. however, I let it idle with my system on high, blower on high, headlight highbeams on and rolling my back window up and down over and over for about an hour with absolutely no change in anything. I didn't even get a slow crank after a dozen times turning the Bronco off and on, this was after a 10 mile drive home, who knows how long it had been this way while it was warming up before I drove it home.

My idle is also increasing as I turn on accessories, which is something I've never seen before. Prior to this, no lights dimmed, nothing, when I had any accessory on. Idle only really ever jumped for AC. So I'm apparently keeping enough charge to power any and all of my accessories, but only at non-charging voltages? It makes no sense at all to me. The belt looks fine, the battery is new,'ish. I know some of you guys know quite a bit about alternators. Some fuse, voltage regulator, belt, cables, etc? I'm at a loss, it seems most of these items would cause a non-running condition or other issues. Everything works fine, seemingly non-stop, just at 12.whatever volts.

oh uh, I have a theory. If the battery blew a cell, accessories would run off of the alternator, but the alternator wouldn't try to charge beyond what the battery could handle, sticking me with reduced voltage, right? I'll try a new battery and see what happens.

Also found out I have a Duralast alternator.. it's the style with the cooling fan pulley, not sure if it's a stock replacement or not.

Oh, there's no battery, alternator or any other kind of warning light.

 

battery cable?

 

I'm gonna start messing with stuff. If anyone has any ideas in the meantime, it would be nice. it's christmas and I shouldn't be spending this kind of time (or money) on my Bronco.

Gonna check the cables, the positive cable is a bit iffy.. I've just never had one of those partial working conditions, I hate troubleshooting this kind of stuff. If it was no charge and everything died, I'd be sure it was a cable or the alternator or something else. The fact that it is just flat out stuck 12.SOMETHING volts confuses and scares me and makes it hard to troubleshoot. Nothing should break to the point that it almost works, it's not fair.

 

If you own a Bronco, you own a Project.

Sounds like it's working good enough to go. You could Leaver A or ... Leaver B.

 

Run by Autozone or another parts store. Most all of them will test your battery and charging system for free.

 

A few quick checks would be Battery cables, And if the altenator is stock check the Plug on it. The 2g alts were famous for melting those plugs. Also if you have a voltmeter double check voltage at your battery.

 

Yeah, all showed 12.something volts. Changed the battery and no difference.

I took my belt off, first serpantine belt, unbolted the idler and it flew (yay for inexperience). anyways, with no accessories (including alt) hooked up, I saw absolutely no difference, so I'm just going ot assume it's the alternator.

2gauge cable, 97 Taurus alternator and harness and I have a 3G, might as well? worst case scenario is I'll have to replace the ground cable after everything else. Everyone says you can find them at junkyards pretty cheap, I'll try it.

 

Yea you can get a 3g pretty cheap. See if your local pull and save has half off days. the one by me is half off monday and wednesday.

 

or you may just have a bad volt meter.....brother-in-law had f-150 do the same thing, did not matter what you did read 12 volts. I checked the system voltage at the battery post ,was 14.20.
Get a digital volt/ohm meter read the battery voltage across the battery terminals with out the motor running ,should be 12 volts or more , crank the motor and read it again if the system is good should be at least 13.8,14.25 is ideal .If it is low most likely is the alternator, but have one of the chain stores run a check on it and then go from there.....
Good Luck
Kenny

 

I got a 3G for $35, I'm happy with that.. can modify the stock harness to work apparently, I just need a good charging cable and a fuse.

I dunno why people run fuses, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it. I think they did it in other vehicles because of the battery cable length. We have a clear shot from our alternator to our starter solenoid (or battery), a very short distance, those taurus and windstars traveled across the width of the vehicle tied in with other wires... even then, the length to the fuse in a taurus is longer than the length of the wire from the alternator to solenoid on our trucks

whatever, good safety measure, but still, seems a bit excessive.

 

the fuse might seam excessive. but if that sucker ever shorts out you will be glad you don't have 130 amps frying your electrical system.

 

Well, I already broke the alternator. I had to grind by bracket, it's midnight and didn't want to wake the neighbors, so I thought I'd flip the case around so the plug was in a better position.

I've never taken an alternator apart before, someone said it's as easy as taking off the case and twisting it around. They were sorta wrong.

I tried jamming the case back on not realizing there were spring loaded brushes (oops), of course it ripped the brushes off of the brush wires.. oh well, they were about 1/8th as long as they should have been and the ends were all torn up anyways. It looks like Oreilleys has replacements for $7. I guess it's better to replace them now instead of later.

 

Oh for God's sake, it's still not charging.

argh..

The yellow wire is a signal wire that goes to the charging cable, that's good. The harness was good.. green and red is just for the battery gauge? It plugged right into my old one.

Is there anything outside of this seemingly simple charging system that would cause my alternator to not charge my battery? Some signal wire, computer something that I should be checking?

 

everyone, that red/green wire is JUST for my gauge and battery/alternator light and has no other function, right?

 

I am fricken awesome.. it WAS that stupid red/green wire. I just redid my gauge lights, lost my oil pressure gauge, COMPLETELY forgot about it until now.

so it was a signal voltage and in the end it was my stupid gauge cluster. Just pressed in the fitting in the back of the cluster temporarily, I'll check connections later when it's not so cold.

but a good 14+ volts, higher than I've ever seen it (but not overcharging)..

old alt was good, oh well, at least I did the 3G upgrade. I have a full set of lights and a winch to put on, so it had to happen anyways.