alternator/chagring

[89Bronco58]

well i ahve posted before about my truck charging fine until i turn a bunch of stuff on and then the guage drives face first into the red telling me the draw is too much. So yesterday i orderd a 140 amp alternator for my 89 bronco. I run an Optima redtop battery under the hood, and a second bettery (everstart max) in the backc and have them wired together, i drove for months and months with that alt charging both batteries and it worked fine. yesterday i hooked up and auto control electric fan so the slt has more draw on it now when the fan is on. with this new 140 amp alternator it should have double the charging power so i should be able to run dual batteries and have all ym accesories running and still be getting a good charge correct?

 

[jaminjimlp]

well i ahve posted before about my truck charging fine until i turn a bunch of stuff on and then the guage drives face first into the red telling me the draw is too much. So yesterday i orderd a 140 amp alternator for my 89 bronco. I run an Optima redtop battery under the hood, and a second bettery (everstart max) in the backc and have them wired together, i drove for months and months with that alt charging both batteries and it worked fine. yesterday i hooked up and auto control electric fan so the slt has more draw on it now when the fan is on. with this new 140 amp alternator it should have double the charging power so i should be able to run dual batteries and have all ym accesories running and still be getting a good charge correct?

i had the same problem and went to o'riley's and got a Ford batt. it was $100 and the biggest one that they had listed for my b2 and has been good ever since. i do like you 140 amp alt. idea though... how much is it setting you back? whats the brand and were did you find it?

 

[89Bronco58]

www.summitracing.com , its 175 with shipping, i forget the brand name, something decent tho, ill post the part number tomorrow

 

[89Bronco58]

ok well here is the link to the alternator i orderd, dont let the picture fool you, when i called the person told me it does not look like the picture for some reason, ok so here it is, just copy and paste this link in your browser... http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...mp;autoview=sku

 

[Seabronc]

well i ahve posted before about my truck charging fine until i turn a bunch of stuff on and then the guage drives face first into the red telling me the draw is too much. So yesterday i orderd a 140 amp alternator for my 89 bronco. I run an Optima redtop battery under the hood, and a second bettery (everstart max) in the backc and have them wired together, i drove for months and months with that alt charging both batteries and it worked fine. yesterday i hooked up and auto control electric fan so the slt has more draw on it now when the fan is on. with this new 140 amp alternator it should have double the charging power so i should be able to run dual batteries and have all ym accesories running and still be getting a good charge correct?

That depends on what the current requirement is for all your stuff running at the same time. What is the second battery for and how do you have it hooked up? Are you running a lot of stuff without the engine running. The battery function is primarily for starting the engine, after that it is only there to supply short term loads that exceed the alternators capability or to run stuff while the engine is off.

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[89Bronco58]

i dont run anything with the engine off, everything is hooked up with the ignition to very very rarely will i have the kep on to power lights or soemthing, the second battery is hooked up like this, the battery under the hood is hooked up normally, with 2 guage wire going from the battery to the selonoid, and then there is a 4 guage wire running from the posotive terminal thru the fire wall to the back of the truck where the second battery is mounted and hooked to that betteries + terminal, that bettery has its own double ground to truck itself, one on the big seatbolt and one to the body, and off that bettery run the amps power and grounds, the truck has never failed to start or charge bothet batteries, like i was saying before its just whenever somehtings on i can see the guage go down, example, during the day , the guage is in the perfect spot, at night, as soon as i pull the lights on, its almost in the red, and if i need the heater or wipers on, its in the red, and anythign more than that, the battery light is coming on steady, even just with the blinker on during the day with everything else off, when the blinker flashes, the guage fluctuates back and forth a tiny bit, this is a problem i have delt with for a while and im sick of it, its summer so i need an electric fan thats reliable, and yes this alternator upgrade may fix the problem, but the stock alternator should be able to handle just the lights at night without a problem, but it doesnt, so i am stumped, i would appretiate any helpful advice anyone has

 

[89Bronco58]

ok i put the new 140 amp alt on, and it didnt do shit, and im really ****** about it, the lights still make the guage go way down when u turn them on, JUST THE LIGHTS.....! let alone running the fan too, seriously idk what this thintgs problem is, im stumpped

 

[Seabronc]

I think you need to go through and check all the grounds. The body is not a good grounding path for a battery, it should go back to the same point as the other battery. One of the first grounds I would change is for the lights. Do you have a volt meter or amp gauge? If volt meter, the location you are monitoring is important to see what the charging system is doing. You should monitor right where the main voltage is distributed, like near the battery. Any other place will only tell you what is going on with the circuit you are attached to.

What kind of alternator did you get, 1G or 3G?

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[89Bronco58]

3g, where is the ground for the headlights?

 

[Seabronc]

3g, where is the ground for the headlights?

Probably the 3G harness has the voltage sense for the voltage regulator right on the output post, (small yellow with white stripe) wire. Move the sense point to the main distribution point, in your case probably the battery side of the start solinoid. The head light grounds are a small black wire connected to the inside of the fender. At least remove the connection clean the area and lug and reattach it. I have mine running to a terminal strip that connects to the battery (-) post via a large wire. The manufactures use the fender, but the body metal and frame are very poor conductors of electricity, probably in the area of 10% of the value of copper, so when any of the grounding points start to corrode you get a lot of weird problems. You should have a ground to the engine, to the frame, and one from the back of the intake manifold to the fire wall. Clean them all and reattach them.

Good luck,

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[89Bronco58]

my headlight grounds were on the rad support actually, 2 on the pasenger side, one on the driver, i cleaned them and the truck where they bolt in, also i ran a 14 guage wire from the - post on the bettery and ran it to where the grounds meet the truck, and to my AMAZEMENT it actually seemed to do the trick, the dash lights are bright again, and i had the system,fan,all lights, blower on high...everything was on, and the guage was still in the green >