Another crown vic question

[rusty ol ranger]

99 Crown Vic civilian

I got all these other issues sorted out except for one....

For some reason, under anything more then mildly moderate acceleration...it will drop charge. Battery light comes on, and the volt meter drops.

Any other time its totally normal.

It ALWAYS happens between 35-40mph in 1st. I have cleaned every ground, the alternator has tested good, and in order to get it to charge again i have to pull over, shut it off, and it immediatly fires back up...so i think cables are fine. Doesnt matter how many accessories i have on or anything.

But heres my question...could this be a cluster issue? I know on these the battery light is part of the charge circuit. Im also having an issue where the low fuel light blinks for the first 40mi or so randomly after i fill the tank...but does not come on when the tank is low. But seeing as how it always comes on at same speed, in same gear makes me think something goofy with the alternator...but it will not do it on a 45-70 freeway pull in second...which should hit the same RPM range.

Any ideas?

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

99 Crown Vic civilian

I got all these other issues sorted out except for one....

For some reason, under anything more then mildly moderate acceleration...it will drop charge. Battery light comes on, and the volt meter drops.

Any other time its totally normal.

It ALWAYS happens between 35-40mph in 1st. I have cleaned every ground, the alternator has tested good, and in order to get it to charge again i have to pull over, shut it off, and it immediatly fires back up...so i think cables are fine. Doesnt matter how many accessories i have on or anything.

But heres my question...could this be a cluster issue? I know on these the battery light is part of the charge circuit. Im also having an issue where the low fuel light blinks for the first 40mi or so randomly after i fill the tank...but does not come on when the tank is low.

Any ideas?

External rectifier or internal?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

External rectifier or internal?

Internal

Its all part of the alternator i believe

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Friggin weird one man.

 

[Curious Hound]

Honestly sounds like the alternator has a bad phase or the rectifier is bad. In other words, bad alternator, makes the right voltage under light load but doesn't have full capacity.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Wonder why it tests fine though?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Friggin weird one man.

Read some of my threads on it...this whole car is friggin weird

 

[Curious Hound]

Wonder why it tests fine though?

Depends on their test rig. If it doesn't put much load on the aleternator, it wouldn't see that problem. I'm not familiar with parts store testers.

There could be a bad solder joint or cracked wire somewhere that only acts up after it gets hot and expands. If that's the case, the tester probably wasn't operated long enough for the problem to show up.

I could be wrong. It could be something else. But that is what makes the most sense, electrically.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Amazon parts cannon!

 

[Curious Hound]

Amazon parts cannon!

Absolutely! Bigger alternator to produce more electricity. Then make the entire electrical system more efficient by installing all LED lights and solid state relays. Get the wimpiest ignition system available that uses less power. Never turn on the heater blower.

 

[SenorNoob]

I kinda did that with my bike to get it working. Then had to switch back to regular bulbs in the front turn signals and headlight to get the turns to blink and the LED headlight I got was truly awful... One of the crappy single diode flashlights from the dollar tree was at least 4x brighter than what I had.