Electrical Charging Help needed.

[D'Animal]

My neighbor called and said he is having trouble with his 1980 ford courier. He says the Alt light stays in. He has replaced the Alternator as well as the voltage regulator. The light still stays on and it still does not charge the battery.

The battery is grounded to the engine block as well as the body. There is an additional wire going from the engine block to the body as well.

It is on the battery charger right now since the battery is dead.

Is there a way I can use a multi meter wrong when checking to see if it is in fact charging regardless of the what the indicator light says?

I hooked the multi meter up to the battery with nothing running. It reads 12.4volts, with the rig running it reads 12.34 volts.

I have voltages going into the back of the alt on stud "B"

The wiring looks like a birds nest as you can see in the pictures below. I really don't want to dig into this to far since someone has already been in there.

 

[D'Animal]

I grounded the Alt directly to the battery and nothing changed.

 

[cruiser88]

It does this without (going dead) the help of the lights being on or it goes dead reguardless.

 

[D'Animal]

I cannot get the headlights to come on at all. Nothing electrical works, horn, turn signals, lights etc. So there is no change in the voltage drop. The only thing that works are some of the indicator lights on the dash.

The fuse box is the second picture down.

 

[cruiser88]

man that is a mess

 

[D'Animal]

man that is a mess

The wiring looks like a birds nest as you can see in the pictures below. I really don't want to dig into this to far since someone has already been in there.

He is an 87 year old man and I feel really bad but I told him he is going to have to take it to a shop that can figure it out.


The reason he is driving this is because he blew the rod out of his 22RE in his 1988 1-Ton Toyota. I am in the middle of putting a new one in now.

 

[Gumby]

fusable link?

 

[KliersLC]

Dunno what that system uses, but alternators are pretty simple. If you have the alternator grounded and also hooked up to the battery, the last check is the exciter wire. Check to see if the small wire from the ignition has battery voltage.

If not, repair as necessary and it will at least charge.

 

[D'Animal]

Dunno what that system uses, but alternators are pretty simple. If you have the alternator grounded and also hooked up to the battery, the last check is the exciter wire. Check to see if the small wire from the ignition has battery voltage.

If not, repair as necessary and it will at least charge.

The truck runs fine.

I have voltage at the single wire coming from the back of the altenator.

Is the exciter wire one of them in the plug in connection?

 

[Brindleboxer]

Animal,

First that rats nest he has for wiring can't be helping anything here. But I will not get on that just that you may need to track some of the deadheads in that bundle to get the accesories to work properly and the truck to stop discharging.

Go to this link and look at Fig. 8 Section 2 (Fig. 7 Section 1 may help also). This will give you a really good diagram to follow for the charging system and associated components. You could troubleshoot some of the circuits with the multi-meter and try and determine the root cause. Hope this helps!!!

http://www1.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0c/e9/82/0900823d800ce982/repairInfoPages.htm

Glen

 

[D'Animal]

Animal,

First that rats nest he has for wiring can't be helping anything here. But I will not get on that just that you may need to track some of the deadheads in that bundle to get the accesories to work properly and the truck to stop discharging.

Go to this link and look at Fig. 8 Section 2 (Fig. 7 Section 1 may help also). This will give you a really good diagram to follow for the charging system and associated components. You could troubleshoot some of the circuits with the multi-meter and try and determine the root cause. Hope this helps!!!

http://www1.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0c/e9/82/0900823d800ce982/repairInfoPages.htm

Glen

Thank you very much!


When I opened the hood and saw that rats nest of wiring I honestly went brain dead and started sweating.

 

[grant5127]

1980 ford courier

Thats special within its self....... back in the day most Fords of this nature had problems with the wiring harness between the alt. and reg. Got a wiring diagram?

 

[D'Animal]

I repaired the charging problem. Bad conection in the fuse bock and I found an inline fuse that was blown.

I found two fuses that were wrapped with a gum wrapper. All the electronics work now, i.e. headlights, dashlights, turn signals, etc.

 

[Brindleboxer]

Cool, hope that the diagram help somewhat!!!

 

[FJ40_owner]

My neighbor called and said he is having trouble with his 1980 ford courier. He says the Alt light stays in. He has replaced the Alternator as well as the voltage regulator. The light still stays on and it still does not charge the battery.

The battery is grounded to the engine block as well as the body. There is an additional wire going from the engine block to the body as well.

It is on the battery charger right now since the battery is dead.

Is there a way I can use a multi meter wrong when checking to see if it is in fact charging regardless of the what the indicator light says?

I hooked the multi meter up to the battery with nothing running. It reads 12.4volts, with the rig running it reads 12.34 volts.

I have voltages going into the back of the alt on stud "B"

The wiring looks like a birds nest as you can see in the pictures below. I really don't want to dig into this to far since someone has already been in there.

With the engine running you should read in excess of 13+ VDC.

Try this. Charge the battery using a 120 / 12 VDC charger. Measure the battery voltage. It should be 12.5 or better.

Install the battery and start the engine. You should read 13.5 Volts or better.

The alternator may have a small diameter sensing wire. Be sure it is connected to a distant 12 volt positive source. Verify the 12 volts is present.

Good luck

JB