boiled then cooked my battery 84 2.8

[bushmonkey]

 

[bushmonkey]

Is there a four wire connector on the alternator or three terminals on the back. It definately sound like it has been hacked together post some pics will help also. It should have a external voltage regulator on the driver side apron?

i'll get some pics up in the morning before work. and ya theres a voltage regulator on the driverside but no wire running directly to it from the alternator.

 

[bushmonkey]

From the link I posted


If you are getting less than 13.6v from an alternator with engine running(idle) and all lights and heater fan on then 1 or 2 of the fields in the alt may be dead.
An Alt has 3 fields that produce AC power, it is changed to DC by diodes, a field or its diodes can fail, this means the alt can not produce it's full voltage.

so if there is supposed to be 4 wires coming off it and ones a jumper that would explain why it didnt go anywhere. but im thinking if half of the alternator wasnt working then hooking it up directly to the battery still wouldnt charge it.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

It has been converted you only have two wires to connect the large wire to the battery and the I wire to key on hot I will get the diagram.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/EDiagrams/files/Diagram_charging_1991_1.JPG
jumper s to s
A goes to battery pos black/orange wire
I goes to key on hot ltgreen/red

 

[kimcrwbr1]

It could be the battery was bad anyway causing it to overcharge. With a new battery and it wired correct check battery voltage key off and then again at 1500 rpms it should be around 14.8 volts then turn the lights on high beam heater on high and check battery voltage at 2000 rpms it should be no less than 13.3 volts.

 

[PanamaExpat]

Maybe your battery was on its way out. Unless the regulator on the alternator is not working.

 

[RonD]

The picture of the meter

For cars/trucks you want DC voltage 20, on that meter that symbol is:
__
...
V

and has 4 Voltage ranges, you will set it to 20, that's for 20volts

You plug the leads into COM, that's the Ground(black lead usually)
And V, just to the right of COM, for Voltage(red lead)

The meter in the picture is set for 200volts AC, this would be the correct setting if you were testing house plugs, i.e. 110vAC wall plugs, same lead hook up V for voltage.

The other use for the meter is OHMs(upside down horse shoe symbol)
This is used to test if wires have shorts or are broken, and to test sensors, coils, gauges, lots of things.
Same lead hook up.
You will use 200 or 2k most of the time, 200 for short or breaks and 2k for sensors, ect...
When set up to test OHMs first touch the 2 leads together, meter should show 0, that's a dead short or if testing the 2 ends of 1 wire then 0 means the wire is not broken.
Separate the leads, meter should show NC or infinite symbol(side ways 8), this mean no connection(NC), if testing a wire then NC means wire is broken.
Power in the wires should be off when testing OHMs.
Measuring OHMs requires the battery in the meter to be working, but since this is a digital meter the meter itself wouldn't work if batteries were dead.

 

[wildbill23c]

On the right side of the dial the voltage setting that has a solid line and then dots below it above the V is the reading you need to use for DC voltage. BTW if your volt meter is showing 0 no matter what you are measuring and what settings you have it on, that means you blew the internal protection fuse in the voltage meter. Turn it over, take the screws out of the back cover, remove the cover and the fuse should be easily accessible, and replace the fuse with one of the same rating. Then make sure you have it on the DC setting like a mentioned above. Take your readings and it will tell you your voltage. For reading voltages on vehicles setting it on 20 VDC will be plenty.

 

[PanamaExpat]

I would like to say at this point in time I prefer my batteries deep fried over boiled. Please update the chef.

Here is a helpful link on alternators. If you can't make it work after reading this... Get someone else that knows about this to help you with it.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Wiring/Part2/

 

[bushmonkey]

wow thanks for all the info guys, it should help me get this figured out.

heres a pic of the wire i connected that i think cooked the battery. its a brand new wire because the old loose one was to short.(cut it after the battery bit the dust)

heres the back of the alternator with the 4 wires coming off it.

external voltage regulator.....i think

and a pic of the truck

 

[wildbill23c]

Holy crap your truck is almost matching in color as my Bronco 2.


Anyhow, I've got my alternator hooked up the same way, and the link to the pirate4x4 site actually states that is one way to connect the alternator to the battery, so I don't think that's what fried your battery. I kind of wonder if you have a wire somewhere that's grounding out causing the battery to overheat. Check all your wires extremely close, I had a wire touching part of the fender that was causing my starter solenoid to short out in the closed position requiring me to disconnect the battery to shut off the starter. In these older vehicles wiring starts to get brittle, the sheathing starts to break and pretty soon you have all sorts of wires touching each other, and metal and shorting things out.

 

[bushmonkey]

thats awesome, i love the color. someone else liked it enough to buy the truck yellow, then it was painted red, then it was painted yellow again lol. so now when i go look for a shorted out wire should i check every wire there is? or should i be more worried about the ones coming off the alternator?



assuming the wires are fine and hooked up properly and the alternator is the right one what would be left to check?

 

[bushmonkey]

so there isnt any splits in the wire or broken coating on the wires. not between the alternator and the fuse fox anyways. but there is that wire on the voltage regulator that goes to nowhere. im wondering if thats somehow connected.
im thinking i will get the truck started and check the alternators amp output and if its at what it should be then i will replace the solenoid and the voltage regulator. or option 2 would be to get a alternator with an internal regulator and wire it in.

 

[wildbill23c]

I've had some people say that the white/yellow scheme on my bronco 2 is really rare, but according to the door sticker info its factory, but I've never seen the yellow/white myself, I've seen either yellow like your ranger or white never a combination of both. Looks kind of cool though especially in the desert area where I live in the summer it blends in really good with the sage brush and dried weeds. Eventually I'll restore it as it needs a lot of body work to correct rust issues. Gotta get it running constantly and get my rear main oil seal replaced so it stops changing its own oil first though LOL.

The most important wires are the ones related to the starter, battery, alternator, and those types of connections, once you go completely through them and take your time, I found wires that were nicked after I thought I found my original problem, but anytime I found a wire that was nicked, broken, and anywhere near metal I either replaced the wire or at least taped it up with electrical tape.

An arcing wire can cause the alternator to sense an electrical drain and default to full output at about 16 volts or more which will quickly overcharge a battery.

Make sure if you are running directly from the Bat terminal on the alternator that you have a fuse link in that wire as well. The older external voltage regulator systems worked great as long as all the wires were in good shape and connected properly. One wire out of place can either charge the battery, not charge the battery, or even give false information to the alternator field and cause an overcharge and destroy wiring, batteries, the alternator, and electronics.

At least your alternator and external voltage regulator seem to be connected properly, I can't figure out what wires go where which is why I ended up running a wire from the alternator to the positive side of the starter solenoid. My manual doesn't say where the wires go either, so I'm kind of in the dark as to how to properly hook everything back up.