Truck is a 78 f150 351m I was picking up dinner on my way home. I stopped at a stop light it was coughing and stumbling on take off. but cleared up as I got to speed. I just thought it might have to do with the new carb I just installed this morning and needed some more fine tuneing. This was the first time I've drove it more than 5 minutes. I slow down to get in the turn lane as the rpms drop. she cough and stumbles again this time it dies. I try to restart all I here is clicking. I jump out to check cables truck has new battery and cables. Lucky a nice guy stopps by and was able to give enough of a push for me to bump start it thank God it's a manual. it starts up and I manage to get it home but notice headlights and all dash lights are dim. I did wire in an electric choke and thought it might have drained the battery. I wired the positive wire to were the emissions idle selinoid used to hook up to. I don't think that wire is hot all the time though. But even if it drained the battery. if I got it started shouldn't a good alternator with a good battery be able to keep up with it running.

 

Yes, you can even run the whole truck on an alternator alone without the battery (not recommended though!) if the alternator is working.
In fact, that's what it's doing normally. The battery is just for starting/storage once the alternator is charging.

I would charge the battery and then start the engine. With a volt-meter check the battery terminals and you should see a reading of approx. 14.5v or so. Battery sitting after awhile goes down to about 12.6v or so, but when running it should always be at least 13.5v or more.
If not, something is stopping your charging system from working. In theory using that old solenoid wire for your choke is fine. Nothing there to mess with the alternator and yes it is only on with the key (hopefully).
But even if it drained the battery, the fact that you got it started in the first place should have got the alternator working and re-charging the battery while you drove.

It is probably not the battery because as mentioned the truck should have run on the alternator alone.
It could be one of the new cables. Even though they're way down the list of bad parts these days, some new ones do fail quickly. How new are they?

Check your voltage regulator connector with the volt-meter. Should see battery voltage on the Green w/red wire with the key ON only, and battery voltage on the Yellow wire with the key ON or OFF.
If those check out, with the wires still disconnected from the regulator, jumper a wire between the Yellow and Orange wires and start the engine. If you can hear the alternator and engine struggling, and see a voltage reading over 14v and climbing, the alternator is good and I'd suspect the regulator.
Don't run the engine long during this "full field" test because batteries don't like having 17v forced down their throat for long! A couple of minutes won't harm anything, but it should only take you a minute to discover if it works.

I'm basing those tests and measurements on the assumption that your truck has an ammeter in the cluster, and not just the indicator lamps. If it has lamps then the regulator would have four different colored wires instead of the three that trucks with full gauges got, and so the tests would be slightly different.

Good luck. Hopefully it's just a regulator or a bad connection.

Paul

 

Thanks for your informative reply. The cable are less than a month old. I'll check the regulator to see if its the cause. but I already have a new one in the box on the shelf. And was going to replace it this week any way. Along with just about all the electrical components under the hood. They all look original to the truck. So thought I would do some previnitive maintinice. As most of the the stuff look super crusty and has seen better days. I plan to keep the old stuff as backups in the truck.