easy alternator question!!

[dugga4life]

have a 94 ford ranger 4.0 man trans 4x4,,,, so im pretty convinced but before wrenching anything off, just thought i would ask,,, latley when im driving the gauges are starting to act weird on me, like when i have boat hooked up i turn the light on and the batt gauge reads low and the oil pressure gauge reads real high, and the temp gauge reads higher as well, never used to do that, and when the boat is off it, it still does it but not as bad, and whenever i hit the brakes it getes even worse, and the brake light will flicker on and off periodically.

 

[adsm08]

Sounds kind of like a weak ground.

Load test the alternator. Hook your voltmeter to the battery. Start engine, if voltage goes down and holds between 11.5 and 12.0, alternator is weak. Should drop steadily as you rev the engine up slowly.

 

[dugga4life]

there is a ground that replaced fronm the back of the block to the fire wall??

 

[shane96ranger]

there is a ground that replaced fronm the back of the block to the fire wall??

Say what?

 

[armadillon]

It sounds like he's asking if there is a ground on the back of the block, leading to the firewall.

 

[Andy D]

There is a bonding strip between the engine and the firewall. If that fried, it is likely that the main ground between the battery and the block is bad and the amps were taking the only route left. I'm not up on Rangers, but most cars have a jumper around a motor mount too.

 

[adsm08]

Yeah... I'm not 100% sure what the exact question was, but try this:

Take your jumper cables. Hook both clamps of one end to the engine somewhere, block, manifold, a FEAD bracket, anywhere. Hook one of the other clamps to the core support and the last one to the battery negative. If that fixes your issue, just run a shitton of new ground wires. You can never have too much ground.