hello, i have a 95 ranger 3.0 and the alternator went bad. i've put two new ones on and had the battery tested but it still dont charge. i've been reading old posts and checked the in line fuse wire going to the battery and it checked good. i've also been looking for a frayed wire that it mentioned going across the engine but all looks good also. i pulled the 3 pin connector off of the alternator and only get voltage on one of the 3 wires while the truck is turned off. should i get some kind of reading on all 3 wires? thanks for all the info on this site. mike

 

Welcome to FTE.

Check your owners manual for the under hood power distribution box alternator field fuse position. If the old alternator blew it, the new alt won't self excite to begin charging.

 

hey pawpaw,
thanks for the info and sorry i didnt reply sooner. we had to leave town due to a family emergency. i did find the number 6 (15 amp) mini fuse in the fuse compartment under the hood blown. its hard to believe that was the problem. i checked in there before but i must not have done a good enough job in looking at the fuses. but now the battery light on the dash is out and i'm getting about 14 volts at the battery. so you were right, the bad alternator must have blown that fuse.
take care and i hope you and everyone on this website has a great holiday.

 

Good find, fix, feedback & to hear all seems well, your on the road again & that it was an easy & low cost fix, seems lately I'm rarely so fortunate!!!!

 

I changed my alternator and battery and cables and checked all my fuses, but it is not charging ,what else can I do to get my truck back on the road l really need your advice Robert

 

Welcome to FTE.

Well lets see, lots of possibilities, so a whole bunch of thoughts come to mind, so try & answer them all.

I see you said you checked all fuses & have a 97 Ranger, so be sure to check the under hood power distribution box, located drivers side, back against the fire wall, 15amp alternator mini field fuse. If it's blown the alternator field can't self excite, so no alternator output. Charging circuit wiring diagram http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/Wd/DownloadPdf?id=7819

Check fuse link "A" for continuity.

If no joy with the field fuse being blown, have you had the computer scanned for trouble code clues? If so, post up All code Numbers as they can help focus a trouble shoot.
If you have, or can come by the inexpensive ELM scan tool running FORScan software on the viewing device of your choice as discussed here https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-scantool.html, it can perform an in depth scan of the computer for trouble code clues that can help.

That said, did you have the old alternator bench tested before replacement & was it bad?
Did you have the Replacement alternator bench tested Before leaving the store with it & did it check ok?

You say the old battery was bad, so what was wrong with it, just discharged, from ignoring the battery warning light & driving it until the battery was discharged?
Or did it fail the load test after having it properly recharged, or was all of the electrolyte boiled out of a couple of cells?
Or was it just old & sulfated & just failed the load test?

Did you replace the alternator first, then drove the vehicle to try & recharge the old battery?
If so, you could have overheated the replacement alternator, as they aren't designed to be a battery charger, that puts out Amps of recharge current for the long period it takes to recharge a completely run down battery.

Did you have the replacement battery load tested Before leaving the store with it, so you knew it was good?

Have you used your multi-meter to perform under load voltage drop tests on the new battery & cables, to make sure the battery is ok & cable end connections are good & the replacement alternator is doing it's thing?

I've seen bad new parts right out of the box.

Once had a faulty factory B+ battery cable with a bad molded on clamp connection, between the wire strands & molded on battery end post clamp, that caused random no cranks from voltage drop across the wire strands to bad molded on clamp connection that was hidden, out of sight, under the insulation. The cable looked fine outside, no corrosion, no swelling of the insulation at the clamp end from corrosion.
In other words, trust but Verify all the new parts!!! lol

A whole bunch of thoughts for consideration, let us know what you find.

 

Don't rule out the possibility of the new alternator being bad right out of the box........have had that happen a couple of times on different vehicles recently........quality just ain't what it used to be........