Did Bronco IIs come with 2 different styles of wiring harness?

[SSSnakeCharmer]

The alternator went out on my 89 recently and I thought it would be an easy fix... It wasn't. I got the alternator unbolted and ready to come out but couldn't unplug the longer rectangular plug. It turned out that it wasn't actually a plug, instead it was actually part of the alternator and hard wired to the harness with no way to disconnect it except by cutting the wires, which would leave no way to plug in the new alternator. After I cut the wires and got the alternator out I went to the junk yard and looked at a few B2s and rangers to see if any were like mine. The first B2 was completely different than mine and I observed that the harness wires that connect to the alternator had actual plugs and were not hard wired to the alternator, also I traced the wires to their starting point where they tie into the rest of the harness and they tied in on the drivers side near the fender well and had a round connecter that you could unplug to disconnect that whole section of harness that plugs into the alternator. On mine the plug wires tie into the rest of the harness on the passenger side by the battery tray near the black fuse box looking thing and there is no round connecter you can unplug, the wires are permanently part of the harness. Most of the other b2s and rangers were like mine except they had 2 plugs instead of 1 being hard wired to the alternator. I ended up using part of a harness from a ranger and soldering it onto my harness. Anyone else ever deal with my weird alternator setup or notice 2 different styles of wiring harness?

 

[bobbywalter]

yes there are different styles.


but that alternator should have a wire that unplugs or unbolts, unless someone did some custom hackage.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

^^^ What he said!

I just unplugged the alternator in my 89 Bronco II. I had a bit of trouble getting the plug out, ended up loosening the alternator and turning it so the belt was as loose as possible to rotate the plug up on top and had to use a screwdriver to get the plug loose. But yea, unless it was custom hackage, the plug should come out. It's just kinda buried in there.

Which reminds me... I need to change the brushes in that alternator before it goes in my other truck...