Hello all. I have some serious issue going on with my wife's 97 Exped. I am in the military and flew home to fix it for her over the weekend. I needed to replace the air shocks, instead we went with the coil spring conversion. Next, I had to put a new battery in her and try to figure out what was wrong with the A/C.

Well, found that to be the Blend door motor. luckily the thing is stuck on cold, so I am not gonna attemp to pull the dash yet.. The major issue is that since i put the battery in it, I cranked it up, and turned on the A/C. It blew a little cold, so I let it run for a while and playedwith the a/c controls to be sure it wasnt gonna swap to heat.

I let it run about 20 minutes and no change, so thought I was fine. I cut it off, to let it cool, andnoticed the volt guage was down at about 9volts..I tried to start it up and nothing... cliiiiiiiickkkkkk.cliiickkkkkk. so..... I thought the alternator was bad,, went got a new one, installed,, put a hot battery back in it..

I cranked her back up, and still not charging properly, with a guage in the battery(running) it is sitting about 12 volts, turn on the A/C, it drops to almost 10. NOW....... I cut it back off for a while,, and read my chiltons a little...

Then I go back out jsut a sec. ago, turned key on. IT went to about 13 volts or so,, started up fine... I turned onthe A/c and back off again,, cut the car off. Then turned the key back on, andit was at about 10 volts. NOW... I just started turning the key on and off on and off,,and every time I do,,my volt guage gets lower and lower. after about 5 times, it was down to 8 volts... I waited about 30 minutes,, went back out,, and its back up to 13 and starts fine!!!!.

I NEED SOME HELP ON THINGS TO CHECK REALLY BAD... I have to leave here sunday to go back 1000 miles away... any help would be appreciated.. I will answer and other questions I can also.. thanks in advance...

 

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Welcome aboard.

First off, let me say "Thank you" for your service to this nation.

As for the truck:

Charge the battery with an external charger first. If the new battery wasn't fully charged (they usually aren't), they can stress an alternator. Additionally, some of the rebuilt alternators available through auto retail parts stores are just plain junk in terms of quality.

That said, I'd suspect a cabling issue. Most likely, a cable has corroded inside the insulation jacket and is dropping the voltage when you try to engage the starter. If you can get the starter to fail again, measure with your meter across what should be a solid connection to see if you're getting anything significant. When that starter tries pulling 150 amps, you can bet that a small resistance in the circuit becomes the source of a huge voltage drop.

Let us know what city the truck is in. Perhaps there is a member with the time and skills that can lend a hand. If you happen to be around St Louis, I'll be happy to help.

Steve

 

You said you changed the altenator, did you replace the harness plug with a new one ? slim chance that it could be the prob but give it a try.
Ihave to agree with
projectSHO most alts that you buy from a retail store are junk ; stick with motorcraft if possible

I WOULD SALUTE YOU OVER THE NET BUT DONT HAVE ANY CLUE HOW! God bless and hurry back