charging insufficiently
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charging insufficiently
Hi all,
This is a multi-part question so I'll try to be as concise as possible but any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.
I have a 1990 Fleetwood motorhome with a 460 EFI engine. It sat for 10 years before I bought it so of course I put a new battery in. After a full charge the battery seemed to weaken over and over so I replaced the alternator and the regulator as well. Same thing though. It starts progressively slower. The guage on the dashboard never goes higher than barely 13 volts. My understanding is that it should be a little higher than that normally.
When I got the alternator and regulator the parts guy was doing a little bit of guessing because of course their book doesn't say anything about motorhomes. So my first question is - were there more than one alternator and/or regulator available for a vehicle with a 1990 Ford 460 drivetrain? Could it be that I was sold a weaker set of components?
Then, here is my next question. I've read that by adding some resistance to the exciter wire that runs between a dashboard charge light and the regulator that I might be able to increase the output of the alternator. A wiring diagram that I've seen shows that the factory put a 15 ohm resister that runs parallel to the dash light. Can I just add another? Would it help? Can I add it anywhere in that wire or does it need to be parallel to the light as the factory did theres?
Any help would be appreciated.
Happy happy holidays to everyone!
Thanks,
Scott
This is a multi-part question so I'll try to be as concise as possible but any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.
I have a 1990 Fleetwood motorhome with a 460 EFI engine. It sat for 10 years before I bought it so of course I put a new battery in. After a full charge the battery seemed to weaken over and over so I replaced the alternator and the regulator as well. Same thing though. It starts progressively slower. The guage on the dashboard never goes higher than barely 13 volts. My understanding is that it should be a little higher than that normally.
When I got the alternator and regulator the parts guy was doing a little bit of guessing because of course their book doesn't say anything about motorhomes. So my first question is - were there more than one alternator and/or regulator available for a vehicle with a 1990 Ford 460 drivetrain? Could it be that I was sold a weaker set of components?
Then, here is my next question. I've read that by adding some resistance to the exciter wire that runs between a dashboard charge light and the regulator that I might be able to increase the output of the alternator. A wiring diagram that I've seen shows that the factory put a 15 ohm resister that runs parallel to the dash light. Can I just add another? Would it help? Can I add it anywhere in that wire or does it need to be parallel to the light as the factory did theres?
Any help would be appreciated.
Happy happy holidays to everyone!
Thanks,
Scott
Cargo Master
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,674
Likes: 16
From: Ideeho
Does it have a battery isolator on it? IE: Is the battery that you replaced just used to start the engine and run "truck" accessories? Most motorhomes I have been around also have a "coach" battery that is used for power in the coach portion. They both should charge off of the alternator. They use what was known as a battery isolator to single out the coach battery from the "truck" battery. If the isolator is bad or the "coach" battery is bad it could cause a drain and/or an un-necessary load on the truck battery........They can be kind of a nightmare to sort out.......
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Smalltar
1980 - 1986 Bullnose F100, F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks
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