Hey everyone,

I've been having trouble with this for about a year now. Last summer, I completed my drive train on the 79 ranchero (302 motor). Anyway, my first battery had died, so I replaced it. About 2 weeks later, the battery died again. I assumed that my electric fans were drawing too many amps, so I bought a larger amp alternator and re-charged my battery. About another 2 weeks later, the battery died, so I just ended up taking off my electric fans. And getting a new battery (free replacement under warranty ). Now, it has been about 9 or 10 months (and about every 3 months I started it to make sure it would start) since I've driven it, but I've been running it for the past 3 days. It was running great, and then about 20 minutes after I had just finished running my engine the last time, I went to start it, and all I hear is my solenoid clicking over and over. I really have no idea why my electrical system is so messed up. If anybody has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.

By the way, the only thing connected to the battery is the cables and the MSD ignition + and - .

Thanks
Danny

 

Three possible things going on here;

1. The first and most likely is a corroded battery terminal on the battery, especially if you have the repairable ends on your cables. Clean all this up.

If that's ok, then the battery may be dead. If the battery is dead it could be from;

2. Not charging. If you get the engine started, check the voltage at the battery. If should be around 14 volts with the engine running. If it's 12 or less, it's not charging.

3. A drain on the system. Do the test below and if the testlight glows bright, then you have a drain somewhere. The first thing to do is take the alternator wires off, and see if the light goes out. If it doesn't then take the fuses out one by one till the light goes out to narrow down were the drain is. Watch out for having the door open while doing this test. The domelight will cause a drain and make the testlight glow bright.

 

Thanks for your help. Before I even start this, I know for a fact that my wiper motor fuse (not the fuse, but the actual fuse holder) is missing. It isn't even in the place it should be, so could this mean an open circuit?

Also, if it glows when I unplug the alternator, what does that mean? Or i should even ask when i take out the fuses, what will that tell me?

Thanks! And sorry for the ignorance!

 

What you are looking for if it turns out to be a drain, is something in the car using current. When something uses current, the current will flow through the testlight, making it light up. When it lights up bright, that is bad.

So if it lights up bright, then you want to go around and try to break the current path that is causing the drain. So if the light was lit, and the alternator was causing the problem, when you take the alt wires off, the light would go out, so you found the alt was drawing the current. If the light stayed on with the alt disconnected, then you know the current is draining somewhere else, and not at the alt.

So to continue on, if you start pulling fuses, you are breaking each circuit. When you break the circuit that is causing the drain, the light will go out. If anyone has added anything to this vehicle, and have it hooked directly to the battery, then you need to also take this wire off, since it could be the path of the drain.


If the wipers do not work, and the fuse is out, then that could not be the drain. If the wipers work, and the fuse is out, that could be a wiring rig somewhere, and could be the drain. If they ran the wipers through another fuse, then you will be pulling that fuse during the test, and the wipers will be disconnected.

 

Thanks again. And one more stupid question; do I do this with the engine off or on? or even with the key in the on position but not started?

I have an MSD6A ignition hooked directly to the battery (but the instructions informs to do that, but there is a wire that hooks directly to the hot wire on the car so it only works when the key is on.

 

Alright, as of now, I did that battery drain test with the key completely turned to the off/lock position and then to the accessory or unlock position, and there is no light. Now the light comes on when the key is turned to the on position (not started though), but that's normal right? Any thoughts?

 

Yes, all that is normal. When you turn the key on, your are creating a current path through the ignition, radio, and whatever else happens to be on. And of course if you leave the key on, and walk away, the battery will die overnight.

So with the key off, the light is off, so you do not have a drain on the battery.

To further troubleshoot the clicking problem, I would turn the headlights on, and get someone to watch them while you try to crank the engine. If it starts clicking, and the lights go completely out, then that's a sure sign you have a bad connection at the battery, at the starter relay bat + connection, or a bad connection were the bat negative connects to the block.

Your car is old, and it sits around. So corrosion at the elec connections is going to be your worst enemy.

 

Thanks for your help. The headlights didn't go completely out. The car is old, but it has pretty much all new parts. The connections are all perfect. I've replaced the battery, solenoid, starter, alternator, voltage regulator, and even the battery cables. I brought my battery into O'Reilly and had it charged back up (it was only charged 65%, but if im right 65% is still about 12.2 volts). Now since I am not an eletrical genius, i did install aftermarket gauges (Haneline gauges that is), and I can get everything to work right except the voltmeter. It always shows less than 12 volts even though the battery is fully charged. It also stays at around less than 12 volts when I start the engine. However, I never hooked up the voltmeter to the alternator, so i think it reads from the volts passing through the other gauges (all + wires are connected). Could these gauges be possibly causing the problem?

I really need to get a handheld voltmeter (multimeter would be nice) so I can check if the alternator is charging the battery. And if it is, I really have no clue what to do.

 

It should not matter where you hook the voltmeter in the car. Even if it was off a little bit and reading low with the engine off, it should rise to a higher value with the engine running. And your battery was pretty dead. So it sounds like you are not charging the battery.

The first step would be to get a multi-meter and start doing some checks to find out whats going on with the charging system. It may be as simple as a burned out fusible link in the alternator output wire(I think your year may have one). If you get a meter, you can check it.

 

Does your trucks instrument panel have a original amp meter, or does it use a fail light?

 

I no longer have the instrument panel. I have aftermarket gauges as i mentioned earlier. But the panel used to have only the light.

Alright, I borrowed a multimeter, and the alternator is NOT charging the battery! While the engine was running, I checked the voltage to the alternator, and it was reading about 5 volts. Also, since this wasn't the exact alternator for the car (100 amp), there are actually 2 outputs for the STA; one is vertical and one is horizontal. Am I suppose to connect both of these somehow?

Also, I noticed that on my voltage regulator, there are 2 wires that come out of the area labeled "A", and one of them is not connected to something. I can't really remember what used to be connected to it (the other goes to the rest of the wires that go to the alternator, and by the way, the voltage regulator is new.) I don't know if this helps or not, but maybe it will give somebody an idea.

Also, there is a fusible link that stems off of the wires going from the alt to the regulator. Is there a way to see if it's out without opening it up? I wouldn't think it would be bad though being that 5 volts are going to the alternator. Thanks again everyone

 

It's hard to tell you what to test since you do not have the original alternator. Is it a Ford alternator or aftermarket?

 

It's aftermarket from Advance Auto (Parts America). I was told by my boss today that it could be the voltage regulator. He had gone through 2 cheap ones until he bought the better brand.

By the way, there actually isn't 2 outputs for the STA. One is the STA and the other is the FLD, i just couldn't read it from where I looked the other day. And I have only three wires going to the alt, so i was pretty sure that it was battery, ground, and FLD. I even switched the FLD to the STA just to see if it would fix the problem, but no luck there.

 

I was just reading a list of parts for the voltage regulator and noticed that one was labeled 60, 65, 70 amp. Since I have a 100 amp alt, could this affect it?

 

It could be a problem, regardless, it can cause the alternator to stop charging if it
is malfunctioning. Yoy might check at Advance to get a regulator to match the
alternator. Make sure they know you have a 100 amp alternator, as the original
may not have been that high of a current. Make sure you disconnect the battery
before you replace the regulator, and only connect it as it is marked. In the original
configuration, the A lead on your reg should go to your batteries' positive line.
The I lead is the lead that would be connected to the fail light. The S and F lines
should go to the stator and field connections on the alt. . The BAT lead on the
alt should go to the the battery positive. Again, make sure the battery is
disconnected when installing the regulator wiring, and charge the dead battery
before using it with the alternator, to prevent any damage. A Haynes manual
would be a good investment to help with these problems. It would probably be
listed for an LTD II as opposed to a Ranchero. Good Luck.