This weekend my battery quit charging. i replace the altenator that wasnt it because it died when i disconnected the battery then i changed the regulator to but that didnt fix it either. cant figure out what it is. It will run all day with the battery hooked up. i took the hot and the ground off and put them together to. it ran. ive never heard of that happening either.

 

What is the voltage output at the battery terminals with the truck running and everything connected? Are you disconnecting a fully charged battery, and the truck dies?
It could be a "blown" fusible link. Follow the alternator power wire that goes to the ignition relay "+" terminal. There should be a fusible link at the end of this wire at the relay terminal. Measure the voltage at the alternator, should be 13.5 volts or so, with the truck running. Then check at the "+" terminal of the relay. If you have 13.5vdc at the alternator and less at the "+" terminal the fusible link is gone.
As for connecting the positive and negative wires together. I have never seen/heard of this problem or would I recommend anyone connecting these wires together.
Keep us posted on anymore info you get.

Sparky

>This weekend my battery quit charging.
> i replace the altenator
>that wasnt it because it
>died when i disconnected the
>battery then i changed the
>regulator to but that didnt
>fix it either. cant
>figure out what it is.
> It will run all
>day with the battery hooked
>up. i took the
>hot and the ground off
>and put them together to.
>it ran. ive never heard
>of that happening either.

 

Check your ground strap. Had this same thing happen to me on a merc. they other day worked 2 hours to find out it was a ground problem
Trouble

 

Sometimes alternators do not put out enough power at an idle to even keep the truck running without the battery. My truck will die also if I pull the battery at an idle. If I bump the idle up a notch with the choke, it will keep running if the battery is removed.

 

i had the idle set up to around 2500 when i disconnected the battery. it still died. there isn't a fusable link in the wire form the solenoid on mine. this didnt start happening untill i hooked up my new role bar lights but i dont think that this would cause it. but i could be wrong.

 

I also can't see why hooking up your rollbar lights would have any effect. I mean you hooked up a new power wire and a new ground, I assume, so no problem. Unless of course you drilled into a wire bundle by accident
So have you checked the voltage with the truck running? Is the alternator actually putting voltage out to the battery?
As Trouble said, it could be a bad ground strap. So when you disconnect the battery ground you lose the only return path for voltage. Check all the grounds between the alternator, engine block, frame etc etc; disconnecting the battery should have no effect if the alternator is producing voltage. Once the alternator has started producing the required voltage it is actually kind of self-reliant; as in the voltage output is returned to excite the alternator's field.
Doesn't always work this way but it does in theory I have seen vehicles that run perfect with no battery and others that shut down as yours does when the battery is disconnected.
If your alternator is producing good charging voltage. The battery doesn't go dead all the time, meaning it holds a charge. The battery isn't overcharging. There isn't an unexplained drain on the battery, meaning the drain isn't the clock or some other electronic gadget that draws current all the time. The grounds are all good.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but if everything above checks out good; you may be fault-finding a non-problem. Check all the wires you added for the new lights, for peace of mind mainly; and then don't disconnect the battery when the truck is running
Let us know what you find out about the alternator output.

Sparky

>i had the idle set up
>to around 2500 when i
>disconnected the battery. it
>still died. there isn't
>a fusable link in the
>wire form the solenoid on
>mine. this didnt start
>happening untill i hooked up
>my new role bar lights
>but i dont think that
>this would cause it.
>but i could be wrong.
>

 

...sound like it's time for a GM alternator.

Trail Rider

 

[FONT COLOR="#0000ff" SIZE="3" FACE="Veranda"]
Quit changin the subject. :-) I always see that type of response as if it is supposed to cure all ills. It is the equivalent of giving up to some degree. The Ford system is quite adequate. All that is required is a little patience. Don't give up. :-)
[/FONT]

[LINK:www.hometown.aol.com/tbeeee|http://members.aol.com/tbeeee/page/registrysig.gif]

 

yea the ford system is quite adequate and since it was used for so long is cheap to fix i replaced the alt and reg on my 75 Hi Boy for 30 dollars that pretty cheap for both components , but even with that on a 25 year old truck people have had their fingers in the wiring and the wiring gets old and brittle and breaks i find this on a lot of fords that just a bad field wire or pigtail on the regulator will cause them not to charge and be a pain to fix but its really quite simple

 

there re some real butchers and hackers when it comes to wiring too