Charging woes
qwertydog
08-11-2009, 08:39 PM
I have a '96 3ltr pushrod that has got me stumped !
The battery light flickers on and off or sometimes stays on. I have replaced the alternator with a new one, checked all the conections and grounds, checked all the fuses, load tested the battery, put the new alternator on my wife's Taurus where it worked perfectly, tried another battery, but have not found the problem ! When the light is off the digital voltmeter shows it is charging, when the battery light is flickering the volts are going up and down, when the light stays on there is a steady drop in voltage while the engine is running. I only have a Chilton manual and I feel the charging schematic is not showing all the details, maybe the alternator circuit is linked to the ignition switch or something like that.
This car has over 300,000KMs on it but it still looks good, everything else works perfectly and the engine purrs. There are no other driveability problems, just this intermitant charging issue.
Any sugestions as to where I should be checking next would be most
welcome.
The battery light flickers on and off or sometimes stays on. I have replaced the alternator with a new one, checked all the conections and grounds, checked all the fuses, load tested the battery, put the new alternator on my wife's Taurus where it worked perfectly, tried another battery, but have not found the problem ! When the light is off the digital voltmeter shows it is charging, when the battery light is flickering the volts are going up and down, when the light stays on there is a steady drop in voltage while the engine is running. I only have a Chilton manual and I feel the charging schematic is not showing all the details, maybe the alternator circuit is linked to the ignition switch or something like that.
This car has over 300,000KMs on it but it still looks good, everything else works perfectly and the engine purrs. There are no other driveability problems, just this intermitant charging issue.
Any sugestions as to where I should be checking next would be most
welcome.
qwertydog
08-13-2009, 07:52 PM
I FIXED THE PROBLEM !
I inserted a probe into the orange feild coil wire at the alternator while the battery light was on and got a reading of zero volts. So I seperated this wire at the alternator, cut it and fed it battery voltage through a seperate 30amp fuse. I removed the original fuse from the under hood fuse panel just as a precaution. Now it charges perfectly and I am getting correct voltage readings. I don't know where, how or why the original wire failed but this seems to be a perfect ending to this story.
I inserted a probe into the orange feild coil wire at the alternator while the battery light was on and got a reading of zero volts. So I seperated this wire at the alternator, cut it and fed it battery voltage through a seperate 30amp fuse. I removed the original fuse from the under hood fuse panel just as a precaution. Now it charges perfectly and I am getting correct voltage readings. I don't know where, how or why the original wire failed but this seems to be a perfect ending to this story.
shorod
08-13-2009, 11:58 PM
Wow, good find, and thank you for the thread!
-Rod
-Rod
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