First off I thought that I would post this thread to help someone in the future, I recently had this problem and had a hard time with finding threads on it, but found one on a Taurus who had similiar sypmtoms but ended up being a different problem.

Symptoms:

Battery light coming on, off, on, off, and staying on. Also, having other "safety lights" coming on such as ABS, check engine, door ajar, ect.

Not being able to accelerate, jumpy accelerating, and finally car dying. I personally had this happen at 1-2am in the morning, so I had the lights on, untill I had to turn them off to keep the engine running, which it eventually gave out anyway, but the lights were so dim, you don't light up the road at all.

You get a jump, and it still dies shortly after, you get a charge and it dies still.

Radio wont work, Dome light dim or off.

Cause:

Could be a few things, so first off is the easy fix in which I had, that is a blown alternator fuse. Easy fix, just replace with a new one, you can get bus fuses at any auto store and even Wal-Mart, Target, K Mart ect.

Also check battery connections to make sure they are tight, and clean.

Could be the alternator itself is bad. Make sure the battery is charged, and get a volt meter out and check the batterys reading, should be over 12 volts if charged, then start the engine, check the battery again and you should get over 14 volts if it were functioning right, if not the alternator is not working, wether it is busted or something else is preventing it from functioning.

Another is the wire to the alternator could have a bad connection, or the connection could be lost completely. Check the connection of the wire going from your battery to your alternator, have someone look at the dash lights and see if they go off when you wiggle the wire if you can't see a obvious disconnection. If thats it, simply splice and put a new connector on, clean connector location, or replace wire.


These were just a few of the symtoms and fixes I know of, if these don't work then hopefully someone else on this forum can help you better than my novice self or try


Story of My Problem

I was out a local wooded area in which there is a spot by a small lake where I occasionally go and chill with a couple friends, have some beers and chill around a fire. So I turned on my music and rolled down the windows, and let that play for about 2 hours ( have a sub and amp as well, so that didn't help). All the sudden the music stops, then comes back on, then stops, then back on, then stops completely. I quickly assesed that the battery was dead, no prob, got the jumpers out, moved a friends truck over, jumped it, went and picked up a friend and brought em back, parked and turned off truck. Little while later I went to fire her up and make sure everything is allright, one turn over and then a festival of clicks. Crap, ok so I just figured I'd have my friend jump me again before we left, so thats what I did, only on the way home, my lights were so dim I couldn't tell they were on. I get home (without getting pulled over) and relized I left a 18 pack there, well that is a no brainer, I quickly got back in the truck and CLICK< CLICK< CLICK. Damn, so I throw a charger on and jump it, head out and get 1/4 mile before I start stuttering, damn, no good, wont make it. So go home and put charger back on for 30 min. and head out, I get there (with dim lights) and get the beer and proceed out and to some back roads home, when the truck starts to turn on more dash lights, and sputter and wont let me accelerate, only can hold a constant speed that keeps dropping (this is with lights off from woods to backroads (FULL MOON)). I stall out, get a friend to jump me (after 2am, thanks buddy!) and give me a little charge. So I barely make it home with the friend escorting me and throw her on the charger all night and in the morning looked though some threads, ended up checking the fuse and walla, relplaced the fuse and she was good to go!!!! then I threw up this thread to mabye help someone in the future.........

Hope this helps someon, Pushdeck

 

thank god you saved the beer!

otherwise, great writeup...you systematically found the problem and fixed it yourself for cheap.

Where is the alternator fuse, and how big is it?

I think I'm going to keep an extra fuse for everything in the truck at all times.

 

I had a similar problem, but mine turned out to be a bad battery. It just wouldn't take a charge from the alternator anymore, replaced it and haven't had any problems yet.

 

The fuse was in the #24 spot in the hood fuse box (if looking from front of ranger on very right halfway back, small black box with hinged top, cant miss it) , and it was a 30a small bus.

Thanks Bhavesh

 

I had the same problems but for me it was actually the alternator itself that was bad. It had gotten full of mud and water from various off-road excursions and finally died on me.

 

almost the exact same thing happened to me before, but I didn't have anyone right there to give me a jump! :( I was actually on the highway when the engine started running funny so I got off at the next exit and took the side roads. The the engine was really hesitating and the lights were very dim. I pulled down a dirt road to see what the deal was and shut the engine off, big mistake because it wouldn't start just click click click. I had to call my dad for help. All because of a fuse. It sucked!

 

The battery light on my 04 Ranger 4.0 would come on at lower rpms. after a good warmup trip of about 25 miles. Replaced the battery which was six years old. Did not cure the problem. Alternator putting out 14.2 amps which is spec. Found 4 ground wires that were corroded. 2 of them behind the battery and up underneath the fender lip. Cleaned them. Found two more in front of the battery at the core support (sometime called fender tie). Snapped the bolt off while trying to remove. Cleaned the paint off a spot on core support near the originals ground. Cleans the terminals, used some die-electric and problem solved and reattaced wires with a self-drilling bolt. One of these ground wires is pliced into the negative battery cable. Easy to find. I'm thinking this wire was not grounding the battery. I remember the old days when the negative terminal was attached to the engine block and very easy to find and clean if necessary. In these newer engines the wiring seems to be more complicated, but the problem is solved.