...it turned out to be a wiring issue.

Today on the way into work my charge light came on. I hit a bump and it went off. Then it came back on. What's going on?

My first thought was mud again. I killed one alternator somehow and so when I put this 200 amp unit in I extended the fender guards and it's kept it much cleaner. Still, with the way I hit it on Saturday, there was stuff in the engine compartment.

What went wrong I suppose could happen on any unit. If you look at the connectors that go into the alternator, there are two of them. The large 3 pin one and a smaller 1 pin connector. There's also the big stud terminal but I'm not referring to that as a "connector".

The single pin connector had somehow let the pin slip out of the plastic shell a good ways. It was barely touching the alternator. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it popped out of the plastic connector shell.

I pushed it back in the plastic shell and held it there and plugged it back in and it's nice and tight. I also used a small screwdriver to bend the metal a bit to give it more contact force.

The alternator is fine now. Sure glad of that -- I don't feel like buying ANOTHER one, lol.

 

glad it was just a wire lose! another 200 amp alternator could get expensive!!

 

i wish someone would come up with a 1 wire alt setup for a ranger.......i installed a 1 wire setup on my brothers '79 f150 and it is a breeze and nice since you dont have to worry about other wires!

 

Good to hear that it was a simple fix... I need me some splash guards, I've only got a half of one left!

 

The longer PS guard will fit both sides of your Ranger. Reverse the pins and move them to the inside of the plastic inner fenders and they will live longer.

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...41&postcount=5

 

UPDATE: I did kill it, lol.

It turns out that the arm which joins the slip rings to the stator winding broke the solder connection where it fastens to the tab. It failed on the way home in a blinding rain with 24 miles left to drive. I put my second battery on line and made it home with a little voltage to spare and the engine running fine (but down to 10.9 volts). Dual batteries come in handy!

I disassembled the unit and inspected it and found the break. I've resoldered it, but only after putting my spare alternator on during a break in the rain. I'll remount the 200 amp unit later this week sometime.

It had nothing to do with mud from what I can see. It is possible some debris got in there and the rotor whacked it (with the tab connection) and it broke the solder joint -- or it could have just been bad workmanship. We'll see.

Anyway, just a coincidence I think that I went offroading 3 days ago. It didn't fail right away at any rate.

 

Sorry John, but I can't help laughing.

 

Why I oughta...

 

That storm was nuts today. I was painting with the garage door open and threw a bucket out. We got over 3 inches in a 5 gallon bucket in a half hour. And then it rained some more.