86 ford bronco 302

[mrpage25]

Driving 86 ford with a 302

Rencently replaced

plugs wires

Radiator

hoses

fan clutch

belts

Driving the other day and the radio went off, fallowed by the bronco just died? Help has spark and getting fuel, I am not get anything at all when turning over , think it could be alternator, any esay way to remove to check?

 

[masters92]

Do You have the brain box on the side of the distributor? If so I have had those just die on me before. Allso check all your grounds(body, frame and block)

 

[Blue beast]

Pull the codes, and post what you get!!

 

[Broncobill78]

The suggestion to pull any codes was a good one. Also, how did you check for the spark ? You need fuel, air & spark to make an engine run, if it has all 3 it may not run *well* but it will run, lose any one of those 3 and you'll get what you have which is a dead engine. If you want to ck your alternator then take it off & bring it to Autozone or Napa or whoever you goto for parts because they'll have the tester there that you need to use & they're happy to test it for free. But whatever's going on with your truck right now isn't your alternator, you don't need or use the alternator until the engine is up & running, your battery is what provides power for the spark when you start the engine so I'd be more concerned with making sure the battery isn't dead. My guess is that you're probably getting air (most folks lose either fuel or spark but getting air is usually not the problem) and if you're getting fuel then what you *don't* have is spark. First thing to figure out is what you're missing, fuel or spark and then work backwards to see why you don't have whichever one is missing.

Check & see if there are any stored codes first & work from there.

Driving 86 ford with a 302
Rencently replaced

plugs wires

Radiator

hoses

fan clutch

belts

Driving the other day and the radio went off, fallowed by the bronco just died? Help has spark and getting fuel, I am not get anything at all when turning over , think it could be alternator, any esay way to remove to check?

 

[bidibronco]

Okay, not to talk behind anyone here but I have seen an engine not run due to the alt. being bad. It's kind of weird but I guess it has something to do with the battery being low too. I would see if you can get a "good" battery in it and see if it'll start and stay started. If it will then take the battery cables off, if it shuts off then it's generally the alternator, if it stays on then it shouldn't have started in the first place. Sometimes engines are just wierd though...

 

[Broncobill78]

You're absolutely right, the engine *won't* run with a bad alternator, or at least it won't run for long. With a bad alternator you'll start AND run off the battery and when the battery is finally drained below the point where it can feed the coil then the spark goes away & the engine dies. In *this* particular case though it was my understanding that he's having trouble getting the truck to start, not run. The alternator isn't in the starting circuit & it isn't involved in doing much of anything until the engine is actually running. He may indeed have a bad alternator but the only way a bad alternator is going to cause a truck to not start is because it isn't recharging the battery and when he shuts it down the battery is too drained to restart the truck.

Before I moved to sunny Southern Florida I spent way way too many New England (you just have to love those Patriots don't ya, now I'm surrounded by neighbors who don't know any better than to root for the Dolphins. These people should be wearing paper bags with eye-hole cutouts for goodness sake. Sorry for the OT rant) winters doing the ole' battery swap two-step. Dig the truck out just to find it had a cold, dead battery. Steal the wife's battery, put it in the truck & get the truck started then *carefully* remove both battery cables while the truck is running and put the dead battery in, replace the cables & tighten them down. The now-running truck will charge the battery (assuming the alternator is good of course) while warming up & driving to work and hopefully there will be enough of a residual charge left in it at 6pm to restart the truck & go home to a wife who is now upset because she's convinced there's something's wrong with her car and it keeps causing the radio & seat keep forgetting their presets. Note of caution here, while I have done this more times than I care to remember and have been fortunate to have only spot-welded a battery-cable to the fender once or twice it's my understanding that trying this feat of automotive magic on the newer trucks & cars is real bad JuJu for the computers and is strongly discouraged by guys who work on much newer vehicles that I can afford.

Okay, not to talk behind anyone here but I have seen an engine not run due to the alt. being bad. It's kind of weird but I guess it has something to do with the battery being low too. I would see if you can get a "good" battery in it and see if it'll start and stay started. If it will then take the battery cables off, if it shuts off then it's generally the alternator, if it stays on then it shouldn't have started in the first place. Sometimes engines are just wierd though...