Rick W’s first gen Ranger alternator replacement/upgrade

[Curious Hound]

Oh, and I have signed up for a remedial wire color code identification class…

Wires? What wires?

 

[Rick W]

To be fair, it's not a "one size fits all" kind of thing. I sincerely hope you have it fixed. Let's give it some time to be sure. What is your voltage immediately after starting and again after running for about 15 minutes?

Battery off 12.38 V

Battery Running 13.94 V

And when I turned the key, the gauge jumps a couple of points above center, and then comes back to center. Before I fried my harness, with the old alternator and a full battery charge, it would start at center and drop as I drove to a hair below center. With the new alternator in, and the magical wire connected (before it fried by harness), it did the exact same thing, which tells me it was only reading the battery and no output from the alternator.

And I drove up to the cute little brunette’s place, 35 miles, after the grocery, and after a deposit at the bank, and it stayed dead center or a hair above the whole way with the lights on and the cassette playing.

Oh, and I replaced the bulb in the radio that lights up the clock and the station, so it had that load too.

 

[Curious Hound]

I like those numbers.

 

[97RangerXLT]

Wires? What wires?
View attachment 146714

where does the beard end and the wires begin?

AJ