Well, lately i've been having trouble determining if the alt is charging the batt or not.
Easy enough to tell with a cheap volt-meter. Just test the battery terminals when the engine is running and if it's less than 13 volts, you're not getting much of anything at all. Between 13 and 14 and it's charging, but not as much as it should. Between 14 and 14.5 and you're good to go.
edit: As I meant to mention (and Viper reminded me), you need to check the voltages also at both the regulator's Yellow wire, and Green w/red wire.
Yellow should have full battery voltage all the time. Green w/red should have full battery voltage only when the key is on. The level of voltage is important here. If either of those varies from battery voltage by more than a few tenths of a volt, there is something wrong with the wires, the connections, or the switch. They're the sensing wires that allow the regulator to tell the alternator what to do. And if the Green w/red wire is bad, even your new alternator is not going to charge if that's the wire you use to turn it on.
The reason I'm questioning the charging is that after driving it here and there running errands throughout the day, it gets to the point where the starter won't turn the engine.
Sounds like what happens when the alternator doesn't charge, sure enough. With headers and an old starter, you can get that too, but more often that will sound more like a weak starter, then getting no action at all.
When it did this, did you get a click from the relay? Or any movement out of the starter at all?
I bought a new starter, but I'm not sure I want to put it on yet, until I know for sure that it's the alt or not.
Good call. Especially if, when it does start, it sounds just fine.
Starters can do funny things when they get hot, like I mentioned, but it's sounding more and more like your charging system anyway.
I also went ahead and bought a 130 amp alt off ebay today, and I'll put that on when it gets here later in the week. From what I've read here that should be easy enough.
It can be. As long as you bought the right alternator that is. If it's a standard mount 3G from Ford, you should be good to go. Might have to change your old pulley to the new alt, but that's not a big deal either.
But first, I would determine just what the problem is with this one. A non-charging alternator is not always the alternator itself.
Your hot regulator could mean a bad wire somewhere, or a bad regulator (though I'm not sure how it would get hot), or, it could just be the residual heat from when it was running earlier. Here's where you have to check things out with a volt-meter to determine where the fault lies.
Right now, my REAL problem is that the bl/y wire feeding the emergency flashers and dome/cigar fuses broke loose from the fuse block. I bought a couple of 6 circuit ATC fuse blocks to replace the old one and be able to add some stuff.
Yeah, that sounds bad. Like your original fuse panel is rusted enough to have that connection fail. Is it possible that it was just a bad soldered joint? Or is it all pretty rusty under there?
I know the big wire off the alt is Bl/y, and that the diagram shows it to split somewhere, and I'm just now seeing that the yellow wire from the ignition switch is in this splice connection wherever it is... So good guessing on the length thing. I think you're absolutely correct, but I don't agree with them doing it that way. I makes me want to wire a relay into it and feed the fuse blocks through that....
The main push-pin connector is very near the back of the ammeter in the instrument cluster. It's not a bad idea to pull it apart and check it for rust or looseness too. That's a very important junction, as you can imagine.
Funny, but even after all these years, I can't tell you exactly where the splice for the Yellow wire is under the dash. I know where they are in the harness when it's out and laying in the driveway, but have never actually bothered to track it down under the dash. Good luck with that, but it's such a good splice, that there is usually nothing that goes wrong with it. Usually.
If there was ever a serious overload of course, it could damage that splice, but barring that, it should be fine. I'm sure Ford never felt that they were responsible for light-bars, off-road lights, BIG radios, and any number of other electrical things that the future owners might think of using. They just wanted to make it acceptable for the expected work load and that was that. No extra money for anything else.
That's the same logic that led them to feel that a 10 gauge wire was sufficient for the charging wire from the alternator. With a maximum of 45 to 55 amps available for charging on a Bronco, that was literally all that was necessary, and sufficient for their perceived needs. Just like 27" tall tires on 6" wide wheels!
Still, running stuff off of relays to unload that circuit is not a bad idea. Just a bit of work. Just what you were looking forward to I'm sure.
BTW, you have responded to both of my last two posts within minutes? Do you get paid to answer these things??;D
Not yet! Been working on that angle a bit. It's so much fun though, I'd hate to turn it into a job and ruin it.
Good luck. Hope we can help you get this going for your deadline.
Paul