Battery not charging on 78 Tique

8122pbrainard wrote: Replace with an ammeter. They are not "archaic" and only become a fire hazard when hacks don't use fuses!

Having a problem finding "said" fuse in your diagragm
What size fuse is recommended for a 105 amp alternator?? Also where would you recommend installing it?
Keep your ammeter and I'll keep my voltmeter and we will both live happily ever after
No hard feelings and no harm done.   Duane

Pretty good article below.

good info

Just my opinion and I feel sure other(s) will differ.

MrMcD wrote: Pete, based on your thoughts on the Amp meter if he just jumped across the Orange and Red would than not complete the connection and get his battery charging again although he would be without the amp meter which appears to not be working anyway. It would allow him to run again while waiting for the new amp meter.

Mark,
I suggested testing first before jumping anything out due to the same concern Ken had a few posts back. That is sending the high voltage through the boat and possibly burning everything out. Confirm the cause first.

Ken, you have gone way and above what anyone could expect. Very nice job and I think you are dead on seeing the problem with this boat.

Pete, based on your thoughts on the Amp meter if he just jumped across the Orange and Red would than not complete the connection and get his battery charging again although he would be without the amp meter which appears to not be working anyway.
It would allow him to run again while waiting for the new amp meter.

If the amp meter is now working then he has a bad connection or broken wire somewhere between the alternator and battery as you guys pointed out already.

Matt,
Ken above is correct as I overlooked the battery connection. Disconnect the red wire from the ammeter running to the ignition switch and then get the volt readings. The result will tell you if the ammeter is bad.

Matt,
When you get back to working on the problem, get the volt meter out again. Get under the dash and check the volts going into the ammeter which could be an orange wire and then out which could be the red wire running to the ignition switch. If the ammeter is open (internally no connection) then you would have no volts out and the issue Ken just duplicated on his truck.

I feel a little smarter having read this. Thanks

Duane in Indy wrote: Beginning to sound more like a poor connection somewhere. Start at the battery and work backwards. Both positive and negative terms. If a connector is not making a good solid contact then the alternator sees the wrong picture and won't charge correctly. It will still operate the starter because of high amp draw, but then will not charge with a lower amp draw. That would also account for the ultra high voltage. And if that is the case no amount of new alternators will fix it. Just a thought.

Had a loose connection on a hot rod years ago. Had lost the connection to the battery and blew out ALL the bulbs that were lit at the time. Headlights and all.

I feel Ken is on the right path. Great job as always KENO

While you guys have been busy pickin' on Pete, I've been out doing a little testing.

Having a couple of old Ford plow trucks with the same alternator and external regulator setup, I was curious how much voltage one of these alternators would put out if it was supplying NOTHING.like I think Matt's is.

As a baseline with the engine OFF I checked battery voltage , it was about 12.4 and checked the alternator output terminal which was also at 12.4 That was logical

Then I started it and the alternator was charging the battery and the output terminal and battery voltage both read about 14.5 Logical and expected.

Turned it off and disconnected the output wire from the alternator so it could still run but supply power to nothing. In this condition it would be sensing a battery voltage of 12.5 or so and wanting to jack it up to 14.5 so the regulator would be increasing the excitation trying to make this happen. Since the output wire is disconnected the battery voltage will never go up.

In this condition, I started it and battery voltage was 12.5 and I had about 55 volts on the alternator output at a fast idle and the more I revved it up the higher the voltage went.
At about 80 volts I figured I'd seen what I needed to see and turned the engine off and restored things to normal with the alternator output hooked up again.

Restarted the engine and everything was back to normal with the alternator putting out about 14.5 volts and the battery reading the same 14.5

So I think Matt has an alternator/regulator that's working right and doesn't have a complete circuit to the battery to charge it.

It could be a dead ammeter, it could be a broken wire, or a bad connection in the engine to wiring harness connector

To check this Matt, one easy check would be to check the voltage on the alternator output terminal while the output wire is hooked up and the engine is OFF.

If you have battery voltage there, then my theory is out to lunch but..........

If you have no voltage there, then you know what the problem is. The alternator works but has no place to send it's output.

If you look at the marked up diagram below, you can see in BLUE the charging flow path with an ammeter If you look at the RED line you see the flowpath with a voltmeter. The colors have nothing to do with the wire colors, they were just colors I had handy to mark up the drawing.

You can make a test jumper with some 10 gauge wire hooked up as shown by the RED line and your alternator should then work and charge the battery at about 14.5 volts.Like I said earlier it's really just the charging path that is used when there is a voltmeter instead of an ammeter

It's easy to do and if you see crazy high voltage still or you get nervous for any reason you just turn the engine off or pull the jumper off.

I tried this with 2 different Ford alternator/external regulator setups and the results were the same so it's worth a try and I think your charging issues will be figured out   

   

8122pbrainard wrote: [QUOTE=Riley] Yes, and I'm happy to say the seller discounted the sale price by $100!

Bet you would have got him down another $100 had you looked under the dist. cap

Ken, that has to be an old picture of Pete's engine from the day he bought the boat as it has non original YELLOW wires and he frowns greatly on non original YELLOW wires!

KENO wrote: Hey Pete I think you know the guy that owns this engine.    Granted, it's an Escort 302 but it has the same style regulator hanging on the back of the engine. it might even have the same alternator I figure that guy could go look at his setup and maybe be a big help as far as the wiring to the regulator and alternator I don't know what you have for an alternator but it's worth a look

Ken,
Due to the very late ice out this year, his lift just went in the lake yesterday. So, the plan is to get over to the boathouse on his next full day off which is this coming Saturday and get it off the beams. I'll tell him to get a close look on how the alternator is wired to the regulator and report back.

I had similar trouble last year with my commander and went with the one wire alt from DB electrical. While running new wires to the amp meter I found out that behind the dash and on the way back to the motor the 8 or 10 gauge wire had melted to another hot lead which caused all sorts of charging problems for me. Not saying this is your issue but the new alt and new wires got mine fixed up.   Pete and KenO were also played a big role in me solving the issue. So thanks again guys.

8122pbrainard wrote: Gary S wrote: Evidently your memory is sketchy on geography class too. Acworth Ga is north of Atlanta so I searched for an auto electric shop there.

Some of the toughest driving in the country except for maybe LA. When you posted that the drive time for those 30 some miles was 2.5 HOURS....   Marietta might be a better choice,there has to be something closer or a better direction.

That route is sounding more appealing at this point.