Lights dimming/pulsing
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From: Ashton, MD.
Lights dimming/pulsing
Sorry I’ve been flooding the board so much lately. I’ve owned this truck for 5 years and haven’t had much time to learn and work on it much until now.
Anyways I’m sick of the dimming/pulsing of all the interior and exterior lights. I did the headlight relays today so the headlights are good now... but everything else is still pulsing like crazy. If you’ve followed my other threads my battery is in good shape, new alternator, new voltage regulator... still pulsing. If it was just a-little I’d deal with it but it’s pretty drastic.
What can I do?
Anyways I’m sick of the dimming/pulsing of all the interior and exterior lights. I did the headlight relays today so the headlights are good now... but everything else is still pulsing like crazy. If you’ve followed my other threads my battery is in good shape, new alternator, new voltage regulator... still pulsing. If it was just a-little I’d deal with it but it’s pretty drastic.
What can I do?
Post Fiend
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 5,831
Likes: 121
From: St Albert, Alberta
Sorry I’ve been flooding the board so much lately. I’ve owned this truck for 5 years and haven’t had much time to learn and work on it much until now.
Anyways I’m sick of the dimming/pulsing of all the interior and exterior lights. I did the headlight relays today so the headlights are good now... but everything else is still pulsing like crazy. If you’ve followed my other threads my battery is in good shape, new alternator, new voltage regulator... still pulsing. If it was just a-little I’d deal with it but it’s pretty drastic.
What can I do?
Anyways I’m sick of the dimming/pulsing of all the interior and exterior lights. I did the headlight relays today so the headlights are good now... but everything else is still pulsing like crazy. If you’ve followed my other threads my battery is in good shape, new alternator, new voltage regulator... still pulsing. If it was just a-little I’d deal with it but it’s pretty drastic.
What can I do?
Any aftermarket equipment? Lights stereo etc.
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From: Virginia
I would make sure the regulator was grounded well to the inner fender. Most of the time they have a special ground wire under one of the regulator mounting screws, and if that is missing you could add one and run it over to the battery negative and see if that helps it.
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From: Ashton, MD.
And yes I do have an amplifier and stereo. But nothing crazy. No subwoofers or anything.
Thread Starter
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Senior User
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 463
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From: Ashton, MD.
I would make sure the regulator was grounded well to the inner fender. Most of the time they have a special ground wire under one of the regulator mounting screws, and if that is missing you could add one and run it over to the battery negative and see if that helps it.
Post Fiend
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 5,831
Likes: 121
From: St Albert, Alberta
All the time indicates either a faulty regulator or bad grounding, as Dave mentioned. To rule out a grounding issue get a chunk of wire and bridge it between the Alt case and the regulator case make sure both are making good contact on their respective cases. If the pulsing stops it is a grounding issue, not uncommon with electronic regulators especially if the body ground for that fender is bad or missing. The best solution is to run a separate wire from one of the regulators mounting screws to one of the grounding studs for the rectifier bridge on the back of the Alternator. This was never an issue with the old mech regulators cause they either worked or didn't as they used relays instead of electronics.
If the pulsing still happens with the Alt and regulator cases bridged replace the regulator.
Of course, this is assuming the battery cables and it's connections and the Alt and regulator terminations are sound. Cause if they are not and are suspect then they will cause the same issue, pulsing.
Post Fiend
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 5,831
Likes: 121
From: St Albert, Alberta
See below
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Lead Driver
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Pulsing that speeds up with increased RPM? That sounds like a bad diode in your alternator. As previously mentioned, definitely make sure the alternator case and the base of the regulator are well grounded to the battery's negative post.
The following article is from Mercedes, but the test is applicable to almost all vehicles. Even if it all seems like electrical mumbo-jumbo, the test is very simple and only takes a few minutes. For best results, and even though it seems like it wouldn't matter (it does!), take the reading as close to the alternator as possible, not at the battery. A reading of 0.5VAC is the maximum you should see:
Link to AC Ripple Test
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Post Fiend
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From: Waterloo, Iowa
The best solution is to run a separate wire from one of the regulators mounting screws to one of the grounding studs for the rectifier bridge on the back of the Alternator. This was never an issue with the old mech regulators cause they either worked or didn't as they used relays instead of electronics.
A set of jumper cables or heavy wire would be useful for testing. Try grounding the alternator case directly to the negative battery terminal, regulator base to either/both etc. Rust and corrosion is a big problem in old trucks, paint on mating surfaces in restored examples. Starters and alternators are prone to that. Pulsing lights is by definition a regulation problem, it would have to be a pretty wide voltage spread.
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Senior User
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From: Ashton, MD.
All the time indicates either a faulty regulator or bad grounding, as Dave mentioned. To rule out a grounding issue get a chunk of wire and bridge it between the Alt case and the regulator case make sure both are making good contact on their respective cases. If the pulsing stops it is a grounding issue, not uncommon with electronic regulators especially if the body ground for that fender is bad or missing. The best solution is to run a separate wire from one of the regulators mounting screws to one of the grounding studs for the rectifier bridge on the back of the Alternator. This was never an issue with the old mech regulators cause they either worked or didn't as they used relays instead of electronics.
If the pulsing still happens with the Alt and regulator cases bridged replace the regulator.
Of course, this is assuming the battery cables and it's connections and the Alt and regulator terminations are sound. Cause if they are not and are suspect then they will cause the same issue, pulsing.
If the pulsing still happens with the Alt and regulator cases bridged replace the regulator.
Of course, this is assuming the battery cables and it's connections and the Alt and regulator terminations are sound. Cause if they are not and are suspect then they will cause the same issue, pulsing.
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From: Ashton, MD.
Sooo I THINK I just had a poor connection on the plug going into the regulator. It was a little loose and dirty. Blew it out and put it back and my charging gauge stopped dancing. I’ll have to wait until later to verify the lights and pulsing is gone. Hard to tell in the middle of the day. Now wondering just how many of my issues were caused by a potential loose connection.
UPDATE: Confirmed, no more pulsing. Connection is still looser than I’d like. Need to figure out a way to jimmy rig it so it doesn’t bounce around. Maybe a zip tie around the regulator and plug itself to keep it tight?
UPDATE: Confirmed, no more pulsing. Connection is still looser than I’d like. Need to figure out a way to jimmy rig it so it doesn’t bounce around. Maybe a zip tie around the regulator and plug itself to keep it tight?
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From: Virginia
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From: Ashton, MD.
Got anything on that other plug im looking for? The one that has 6 wires for all rear lighting?
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From: Virginia
Was it you I sent this link to? Or was it someone else? If it's not in this catalog I am not sure where you could get it.
http://www.fordservicecontent.com/pu...torcatalog.pdf
http://www.fordservicecontent.com/pu...torcatalog.pdf
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