First of all, hi, hello, fairly new mechanic here, so go easy. Thanks to you guys my 4.0l xlt manny has lived a long prosperous life and I’ve fallen in love with her and spent a decent amount of time taking care of her, enough to choose her over many actual girlfriends of the past.
That aside I’m at a loss and feeling pretty stupid lately with the wiring and charging issues I’ve had. Granted, I’m st00pid.
Recently I was parked at a lot running at idle for about 30-45 min and the truck died on me. Didn’t run out of gas, just stalled out at idle while I was using wifi. I had a gentleman spot me checking the battery who then assisted me in pushing so I could pop clutch. It started but would not rev up and then died. With no more hill to go down, I had a friend come jump it. Jumped it, started right up, idled fine no dash lights, died while putting cables away. Jumped a second time, ran and idled fine for about 5 min before I drove short drive home, died pulling in the driveway. Didn’t notice any battery lights at the time cause I didn’t know what the issue was.
Since then I assumed I had an issue with the charging system because the battery is new (11/2022) and the alternator was replaced with a refurbished and tested part I bought at autozone in 2017 when I was an even worse mechanic. (Obviously not that bad of one considering it ran for 6 years fine) Anyway, I went to Oriellys to have it tested. Started and drove fine to oriellys tested the alternator and they said it was fine ??? went back home and once again died in the driveway.
I went about checking volts with a multimeter. After charging, battery neg to pos checked out at 12.6 volts. Battery ground to alternator housing checked out same, ground to where alt bolts to engine, same as well (forgot to check the B+ to pos) started it up and idled fine no battery light but gauge read low volts, checked volts at battery while running and it was at 11.3 volts. Slowly went down until dying once again. OK, Issue. I’m cheap so, instead of going to get alternator I Started reading about checking wires, volt drops, and volt regulator on alternator. So then following wires and wiggling them around, found the small connector on alt was loose and clip broken, plugged it back in as best I could as is, and then following the other 3 wire connector best I could tell a wire pops off at the heat-shrink where 1 wire is spliced to 3 wires near the battery that come out turn around and go back into wires wrapped. It’s the one that’s smaller red-ish/brown of three fusible link wires (other two are grey or white) the one from the splice running to the (I’m guessing fuse because it’s heat shrunk and I haven’t cut it off) fusible link, that is then connected to the yellow wire, which I think runs straight to the alternator connector but it’s hard to tell because wires go up between the power steering and engine block?. So, not having a lot of time to deal with it in the moment, I unhooked the battery, I cut the heat shrink, cleaned off corrosion, stripped back the wire a little, wrapped wire around larger wire where the three were soldered to originally and put some electrical tape on it.
If that’s idiotic of me to do, sorry I’m an idiot. Because I connected battery back up, the doors oddly locked, I went to start the car again to check if it was the problem, and it fired up revved up to about 2k rpm without me hitting the gas, but then immediately died. Charged it back up to around 12.3 or 12.4v and it did the same thing. So turning the key, check engine light, battery light, seatbelt, abs, check fuel cap, airbag, theft lights all come on then turn off except CEL and batt light. Starts up and immediately dies. After it dies the check engine and battery lights are still on. when I try starting then giving some gas, it will struggle but turn over and bog a bit until about I bring it to 2k rpm, then revs normally after to 4-5k rpm. Upon letting off the gas it will drop and immediately bog out once or twice and die
Going forward, I need help obviously so I don’t F it up further! That being said I’ve got it on the charger again and I will test it for volts again to give you readings. I which readings should I take and on what? Obviously I’ve made it worse since it won’t idle at all now. So…

What do I need to test for to find the problem? Alternator possibly being out is obvious but why can’t I even get a running idle now, when fully charged? Should I test all the wires in the charging circuit? Can I test when it’s not running? Which wires should read what? Did I f*** up the one I reconnected by just wrapping it around the wire it was originally connected to and not properly soldering it? Was that wire even in the charging circuit? Could Having the battery connected when the wire popped out thrown off the computer? Should I just give up my mechanical career now and forever more? Are you high right now? Do you ever get nervous? Lol jk, the last two questions are lil Wayne’s.

Seriously tho, I don’t know what to do going forward. Please help me ob1 kenobi. You’re my only hope.
thanks,

-Smokie

p.s. The kid I bought it from in ‘16 installed an amp for his stereo in the cab behind drivers seat. I’ve never used it, there’s no subs, it’s never been on as far as I know indication lights off, it’s unplugged in several locations on the amp and plugged in on a couple others on amp with blue wires but as far as I can tell, looks professional and there’s a red thick wire wire running under the step where the door closes from amp through some carpet and clutch master cylinder hole in firewall, then there’s a large 60amp in line fuse on the wire near the distribution box then its bolted in at the power distribution box on the post. Probably should get rid of it but I’ve not had an issue all this time so never worried about it.

 

Welcome to the forum

Try reading your post....................very very hard to read, needs paragraphs

So what I got is that charging system is not working
Easy to test

Based on 2001 Ranger charging system, other years can be slightly different

Key off
Test battery volts, say its 12.1v, but remember yours

Test B+, stud/nut terminal, using alternator's metal case as the ground, should be EXACTLY Battery Volts, if not then you have a bad fusible link or bad connection

Unplug 3 wire connector on alternator
Test Yellow/white wire, should see Battery Volts EXACTLY, if not then a bad fusible link or bad connection

Test Light green/red wire, should be 0 volts
Turn on the key
Retest green wire, should be Battery Volts but can be slightly less
If no volts then fuse 11 in the cab fuse box is blown, 7.5amp, this is also the Battery Light Circuit, so if Battery light comes on with Key on(green wire connected to alternator) then fuse is OK

Key off
If these 3 wires test OK then plug back in the 3 wire connector
Make sure the White jumper wire is connected to the single spade terminal on alternator, unplug it and plug it back in to be sure

Start engine
Test battery voltage, should be 13.5v to 14.8volts
If lower then alternator is bad, period, not a guess not a maybe, its bad





Vehicle electrical systems are not that complicated, charging system is very easy to test
The Battery in any vehicle is ONLY there to start the engine
A Battery, even brand new is only 12.9volts
Once engine starts the MINIMUM Voltage a working alternator will produce is 13.5voilts, so higher than battery volts
This means Voltage travels TO THE BATTERY, to keep it charged up for the next time engine needs to be started

So the alternator powers all the electrics in the vehicle when engine is running, battery is not used at all
When alternator quits working then the battery has to take over and its not made for that, its made to quickly discharge high amps for start motor then quickly get re-charged for the next time
If it has to run all the electrics AND the engine it will run out of amps pretty fast, so engine dies and lights are dim
This can RUIN a battery, so heads up

Its not at all unusual to have to replace alternator and battery at the same time or within a month or two
A failing battery can cause alternator to run at full output, causing it to "burnout" early
And a failing alternator can cause battery drain that causes its Cells to short internally, so battery becomes self draining