Help

Ok so i have an 86 Ford Escort.. i just replaced The Starter on it and before i did that the car wouldt start worth a damn and it would just grind and it was like something was draining the battery. But i put on the new starter and the car started great and awesome like it was brand new. Now i have replaced the cellanoid as well. I took the Altenator off and i had it checked twice! and they said it was ok. But last nite i was out driving and all of a sudden i pulled up to a stop and my battery lite came on for some reason. and my lights and things got dim..so i pulled up to my friends house to pick him up and i let the car idle and then it just died. When i went to start it..it grinded and it wouldt turn over good like after i put the new starter on. So i figured it was the wire on the starter cuz we had trouble getting it on there so i went down there and fiddled with it..and finally got a wrench and tightened it cuz it was really loose.. but after a fiddling with that for a while i got it to turn over but it was like horrible like the battery was dead...Now this battery is new and we had it replaced 2 times so i know this battery should still be good..its a walmart battery. So we took off after we got it started and i was going right to my house and like a block before my house the lights got so dim you could barely see them and i got the car in the back of my house and i hooked up my charger and i just gave it a slow charge and it is still on the charger as we speak because the battery life on it was low or so my new charger said. So i am wondering what could be wrong?? could it be a short some where..someone told my mom about using a test light and pulling fuses but she forgot how they said to hook it up..i have a test light but i am not sure if i should connect it to my battery or what..But i was told to unhook my battery and get the car running to see if the altenator could of messed up..so could anyone give me any ideas on what to do or check?? this is annoying the heck out of me.


thanks

Check that the wiring is done correctly. Perhaps your alternator is in fact working correctly, but you have it wired wrong?
It sounds as though you are getting it started off of the battery but the battery is not getting recharged.

Next time you get it running, disconnect the negative from the battery (while running) and see if it dies or not. It should be able to run off of the alternator.

Use a test light or a multimeter to trace the output from the alternator and see where it gets lost (if at all). You should get 14v or so from the alternator.

Thanks i will try that...I am going to go out right now and look at the altenator and the wiring...and check and see if the it will run off the altenator..So how do i use the Test Light?? i have a test light i am just not sure how to hook it up and test it.

Ok so i went out and looked.. I couldt get a good look at the wires on the Altenator but i start the car and The battery lite is still on...So i took the negative off and it does die... So could it be that maybe we didn't get the altenator tight enought when we put it back on?? i mean we got it tested 3 times...First at O'Reilly's they said it was bad..but then we took it to an Altenator shop in town and they said it was good but to make sure take it Bumper To Bumper because there machine could tell if there was a bad diode in the altenator so we took it there and they said it was fine. I am so lost now that its crazy. I dont know what to fix next to make it run right.

Your alternator is bad.

The battery lite on the dash is for the charging system (alternator). If it is putting out any power, it is not enough to recharge the battery.

Not sure what to tell you about having it tested 3 times... but if you are certain the alternator wires are connected properly, and that the wiring to the battery is good, then replace the alternator. If it was working and wired right, it the engine would not have died when you disconnected the battery.

The machine that these shops use to test the electrical system usually gives a paper printout. If you have it tested again be sure to get the printout.

As for the timing light... all you have to do is connect the wire to a ground and then make contact with the tip of it to the wire you want to test. This doesn't tell you exact voltage as a voltmeter would though...

Damn, well that sucks. Thanks for helping me out there. i am gonna try and get some help getting a new altenator and hope that does it.. but tommorow i am gonna try and get the altenator off and look at the wiring but i am pretty sure that i did hook it up right so maybe it is the altenator

my 1990 ford escort ran out of gas. put gas in it, now wont start. is there a reset switch for the fuel system when this happens? putting gas down the throttle body will make it run but just until that gas is burned up. is the fuel pump located in the gas tank?

just passing this info along.....that 1990 ford escort has the fuel pump located inside the gas tank. the fuel pump can be removed from the sending unit seperatley. this way, only one or the other can be replaced. there is also something called an ECM that relays the electrical current to the fuel pump. not sure where this is located, it may be in the fuse panel or under the hood. i was told its not good to run a vehicle so low on gas as this may cause the fuel pump to overwork and fail.