Severe Battery Drain

[Pepsiboy700]

I'm new to the forum and at wits end with what to do with this truck. The vehicle I have is a 1998 Ford Ranger with the 2.5l inline-4 engine and 5 speed transmission. The vehicle was a company vehicle that had the fluids serviced regularly but not much more than that. It currently has 140k miles on it and runs great, or so i thought, except for a rough idle. Now for the story.

Yesterday I went to Auto Zone and picked up a Sunpro tach. I got tired of trying to listen for when the engine revs up and I havent got use to the shift speeds yet. Also for $30, I figured why not. Well I set it up based on a tutorial I found online and I grounded tach out to the chassis and got the 12v from the battery. I then ran the green wire to the tan with yellow strip wire #43 I think it was from the ecu. I started the truck up and everything worked fine. Now also as an important side note I put a system in the truck. I taped off of the battery for the 12v and grounded the system to the same spot as the tach. The wiring was of sufficent size and quality. One thing I did notice was someone ran rca cables and a small green wire to the back of the cab but I had no use for them and as they were not plugged in at either end, I took it out. I also had them plug in a diagnostic scanner because the check engine light was on and a code for a misfire in cylinder 2 came up and an egr problem.

After driving a few miles I noticed my battery gauge which was at 3/4 was now at 1/2 and falling really fast and the battery light was on. The part that sucks was I noticed this right as I was getting on the parkway. After about 2 miles the truck started bucking and trying to stall and the battery gauge was at the L. It finally died and I coasted to the side of the road. I tried to start it but it just clicked, sign of the battery being dead. Luckly someone was nice enough to pull over and offered to take me to Pepboys to get an alternator. After doing so I ran back and installed it no problems. The old one seemed original and clicked a little when you turned it and was really dirty. After installing the new one he jumped my car and we let it idle for a few minutes still jumped. After we unplugged it the battery went to about a 1/4 and the battery light was still on. I made it 1/2 a mile till it stalled again. So we pulled over and let it charge for 15 minutes just enough so I could make it 2 miles back to my dads house. Luckly I made it there coasting most of the way and in 2nd gear. I couldnt use any lights cause my battery gauge would instantly drop down to the L and if it was a blinker the needle on the gauge would bounce around.

I went back to Pepboys the next day. Returned the alternator for another new one, got a new battery, and got a generator relay solenoid. No beans. It will start with a jump and idle for a few minutes and then just sputters and dies. It seems the alternator isnt getting power to the battery. When you disconnect the battery so that just the alternator would be powering the car the engine instantly dies. I checked the battery connections and well as the ones on the alternator and I cant find any other lose or decayed wires.

Through reading through people are saying to get a volt meter and test to see what could possibly be draining the system by pulling fuses and checking the ohms but the alternator isnt even powering the battery so I am figuring the positive wire from the alternator to the battery is shot or something other electrical that allows it to charge the battery is shot. Any ideas or some directions I could be pointed in?

 

[Pepsiboy700]

I got an update not more than 2 minutes ago that a wire going to the fuse block was fried. There not sure if that was the exact problem as they are fixing it now but there not sure what caused that.

 

[locovaca]

I would check all wiring going to the alternator. If you don't have a multimeter, now would be a great time to invest in one.

 

[jubangy]

I am not sure if it is setup the same, but most vehicles I have seen have a fusible link that when blown will knock out the alternator. It was this very reason that I only paid $300 for the 95 awd aerostar that I am driving now. The people I bought it from I guess worked on it for 3 months, changed 2 batteries and 3 alternators, to no end. I talked them down from $800, but they got me back because the day I went to pick it up they never recharged the battery so the van made it just out of their driveway and died. I decided to fix it there as I was going to wait until I got it home so I didn't get them upset seeing how easy it was to fix, and cheap .

Anyways, I am not sure where it is on the ranger, but on my 95 aerostar there is a set of wires below the solenoid on the firewall by the battery, there was a blackish or brown colored wire that was a fusible link, it was blown. Unless you know what you are looking for you may not be able to see it because like mine, they don't always blow completely apart, in this case it blew inside the insulation. I just grabbed the wire and started bending it, if you do that up and down the wire you should be able to feel a hollow spot where the wire is more flimsy then other parts of it. Thats where it was blown. As soon as I fixed that the van started charging again and the battery light went off.

This is a common issue when people start installing stereo equipment because for wahtever reason I see alot of people running a straight feed from the battery back to their equipment and not putting any type of fuse in it, which is pretty dangerous but apparently they would rather take that gamble then have to change a fuse if it blows. Anyway, there is a good chance that when you pulled out that wire you said you didn't need that it somehow either shorted ut on something briefly, or it created enough of an arc that it popped the fusible link that probably saved something alot more important/expensive.

And by the way, if your truck idles poorly, and the computer is saying misfire detected on #2, try putting a tune up in it and see if your idle straightens out .

"A Ranger is a terrible thing to waste" take care of it and that ole girl will take care of you I had my 94 for 10 years and even though I womped on it with all the off roading and pulling trucks out snow and mud that were definitly out of my trucks weight class, she took it well and kept going.