Alternator (1989 Ford Ranger 4x4 2.9L)


Ferrell

Ferrell

15+ Year Member

Joined
Sep 20, 2010
Messages
106
Points
3,101
City
Perry, FL
Vehicle Year
1989
Transmission
Manual
Alright so i ran all afternoon doing a roundtrip 200 miles total from Perry, FL to Bristol, FL. Truck ran like a king all day, until it approached night time. I had the bright lights on and noticed it was draining the battery. So i made it about 20 miles from home and the truck died. Called my dad to come get me and well he jumped it off and i made it to the house barely.

So i figured it was the alternator not charging, took the old one in and got a new one to be on the safe side. Drove fine during the day but once i turned the lights on it went poof on me again. So now its sitting a mile from my house on the side of the road due to i am disgusted with it. Makes $1000 i've put into it this week alone.

Now here is the question i wanted to ask, could running it til the battery was below 20% charge, and then putting the new alternator on it and trying to run it at night, could it have possibly been to low for the alternator to charge it back up? Because its a brand new unit and the guy at o'rileys tested the battery and he said its good but low.
 
check your new alternator. could still not be charging. check your voltage with a volt meter while running. check from the alt and the batt. even try some accessories to see if theres power loss anywhere.
 
All of that was done at the o'rileys, all the man could tell me was somehow the battery wasn't getting the charge and both the battery and alternator are in working condition. I'm thinking a cord might be cut or something. But as far as powerloss, my lights drain the battery quicker then having the cd player on.
 
Alright so this morning i went down to get the truck and noticed there wasn't any water in the battery which would explain it not getting a charge. I knew i was forgetting to check something lastnight but i was to stressed to figure it out. But when i started the truck i noticed a slight tapping noise near the back of the engine. I'm hoping its not the same thing that happened to my yota. A bent pushrod.

So here is what i am asking now, is it just tapping from the cold since it was decently cold this morning, like in the low 60's-50's? Or do i most likely have some engine damage? If so i am screwed since i know nothing about working on fuel injected vehicles, my old yota was carb so it wasn't a problem.
 
My 2.9 tapped all the time, I figure it's lifters. Apparently these motors are famous for that.

Richard
 
alwaysFlOoReD said:
My 2.9 tapped all the time, I figure it's lifters. Apparently these motors are famous for that.

Richard
Click to expand...

Ain't no apparent to it. They are some rattlin little motors. You can fix it it, and it may or may not come back. My mechanic told me not to worry about it. Got a year and a half out of one. 2 months out of another one. Then I put my 4.0 in. Will do that again in my other B2.
 
When you have a charging issue it is best to figure out exactly what is wrong. Just changing components is ok if it works but can get expensive if it don`t. A good volt ohm meter or even acheap one is a good investment. Overcharging will boil the water out of the battery inspect and clean all your connectors and wires especially the ground connections sand them metal to metal. Read thru this all the way a couple of times so you better understand how to diagnose the problem or verify it is working correct. You have three components and any 1 can destroy the other two rather quickly so you have to get it right. GL

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/chargingsystem.htm

the tech library has alot of info you can adjust the valves rather easy jus getting the covers off can be a challenge.
 
Thanks kim, i checked it all out and it's because the battery had no water in it. So now that i have that fixed, onto the tapping solution. How hard is it to take the top part off so i can replace the lifter that is tapping? Like i said i worked on a carb truck before but never fuel injection and i am not to keen on messing with fuel components since i am a big wuss when it comes to having stuff blow up in my face lol.

So could someone give me a little help as to the steps to get the heads and all off to replace the lifter?
 
don't be afraid of fuel injection, it's simple.

however, lifters are valvetrain components and have nothing to do with the fuel injection.

you have to remove the head to replace the lifter, so failing that, just put thicker oil in the engine, or a bottle of lucas oil stabilizer, it'll stop ticking.
 
I would leave the ticking be unless its an actual knock.

If its a collapsed lifter or something, it might be worth checking out though. It'd be a different sound than our "normal" ticking.

If you do the lifter, it would also be a good idea to do the rod as well.
 
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