I finally took my truck out for its first drive since i got it about 2 years ago. I have every thing running good except the alternator, it is not charging. I took it to advance auto this morning and they said the alternator was fine. So I installed it again and checked the wiring again. It all looks good but still no charge. I went by this diagram http://www.blert.net/comet/i/gen2alt/GENERATOR.jpg still no charge.
So I broke out the volt meter and see for myself. There is only 12 volts on the red terminal so that is not charging it. I put the meter on the terminal with nothing on it(bottom right) and it says its at 14 volts. I just rubbed the wire against the terminal and it sparks up real bad so it seems like i can't connect it to that. I am wondering if there is something i missed and see if you guys can help me. Thanks.
i dont know if you are going to like this.get a one wire altonator.i put one on my truck about 5 years ago.i dont have the head ache of all those wires now.
I had the same problem so I put a wire to fuse block from the alt. and then to my battery + post and had no more problems.Found out Ihad a split in a wire and it was stopping the power flow
motormount1 wrote:i dont know if you are going to like this.get a one wire altonator.i put one on my truck about 5 years ago.i dont have the head ache of all those wires now.
Yeah thats probably what i will end up doing. I am just kinda on a budget here and I would like to use what I got. At least that 1 wire alternator is only $30.
Two things that may help, did you check the voltage regulator. Especially important if you have one of the old mechanical ones. The newer Ford regulators are electronic and work MUCH better. Also the light bulb in the dash for the charge indicator must be good for the alternator to charge. Unfortunately a lot of people have under dash wiring issues and the bulb is gone or the wire cut or when converting people assume they do not need that wire as it is just for the bulb and they leave it off. The charging circuit gets energized through the bulb when you start the vehicle on that type of system. There really is no advantage to a one wire alternator over a stock Ford system (assumig a newer electronic voltage regulator!) except for fewer visible parts. The one wire still has the voltage regulator but now it is inside the case where heat acts upon it and they tend to fail more often than traditional regulators (I replace a lot of them for customers! LOL). The stock system is more than adequate for our vehicles and dependable. I use the 100 amp Ford alternators with an electronic voltage regulator and have never had a come back EVER!. Hawkrod
