Charging issue need help ASAP

[my white eddie]

Hello,
I have a '97 AWD EB Explorer. Just fixed my LOM on Friday afternoon.
Saturday, I drive to work fine, lunch etc. I get in to go home after work,
starts right up, but starts running rough. Next thing I know dash and display
are going nuts, stalls right out. DEADER THAN DEAD. Charged battery and
had it tested-they say its good. So I replace the alternator(it was noisy anyway) all seemed fine. Go to work Sunday all is well, lunch home etc.
no problems. Get up today (Monday) starts right up but the closer to work
I get, the worse its running. Go to turn in to work; it dies! Pulled a fully charged battery out of my truck, start it, all seems good. 20 min later right
back to the same crap. Any body got any clues? This is my daily driver. Could
I have messed up something in the LOM, that would cause a charging issue?
BTW both alternators test good(old and new)

 

[budwich]

what did you fix in your LOM????? its pretty hard to guess.... and why did you fix your LOM?

 

[my white eddie]

Drivers side headlight was out. looked it up in here and saw a thread
about bad solder at pins 1,11,12,and 13. re-solders those and now the headlights work, but it seems I developed this issue right after.

 

[Kevlar7R]

Get it running and test the voltage at the battery.

I'm guessing a bad connection somewhere. From the age of our vehicles, battery cables degrade and corrode. It's quite possible you have a badly corroded connection that is preventing the alternator from charging the battery. Sometimes the corrosion is down inside the wire, and you can't even see it until you cut the wire apart.

 

[my white eddie]

Whelp, Im at work, but a quick test with the multi meter at the
battery reveals 11.20 V at the battery with engine running.
pulled on the headlights and it dropped to 10.93 V which
seemed like reasonable drop, but obviously the voltage is all
way to low to start with. Any ideas or common issues to check?

 

[my white eddie]

Went out for a smoke and checked again. no draw when sitting. No difference in running voltage with LOM unplugged (good, I guess) Voltage at alt post with it running is 10.95 steady for a while then jumps all over the place, some times as low as 3.41 V. So Iguess Ill try another quality alternator from "the Zone".

 

[koda2000]

AZ should test the alternator in their test machine when you return it (at least they're supposed to). It's also possible the alternator is okay but not getting turned on when you start the engine. this could indicate a blown fuse, fuseable link or a wiring/connection problem.

 

[Kevlar7R]

Measure the voltage where the big cable connects to the alternator. There is usually a rubber cover over the connection you can lift up. If it's 14ish, then the problem is between the alternator and the battery. If it's the same as the battery then yea, something is not telling your alternator to turn on.

 

[Turdle]

Also, check mini fuse #6 15a in the fuse-relay box under the hood

 

[LONO100]

My guess is that something is keeping the alternator from running, like a fuse, or bad connection. You may also have a bad battery cable as a previous post pointed out.

 

[my white eddie]

Didn't make it home. Ran 2 batteries down in less than 10 minutes!
seems as though I have an 11 V draw even with the key off (in my pocket)
hooked a test light between the positive post and positive terminal, and boy
did she glow! Pulled every fuse from the interior and underhood fuse panel,
and unhooked the alternator as well, but the draw never went away. I did unplug the LOM again and it didn't change the draw. I'm at a loss! Was way to dark and cold in the Krogers parking lot, so I'll try some more searching after work tonight. I do appreciate all the help and suggestions so far.

 

[TheGTkid]

Did you cover the solder? (wires have insulation, did you solder a break in a wire?)
You could be experiencing grounding issues
Just my .02 and idea

 

[my white eddie]

No, I soldered a circuit board. The original solder had cracked at a couple
of the contact points, so I just cleaned it up and re-soldered it. Originally
I was afraid I had maybe dripped solder across a couple contacts, and
didn't notice, but that is not the case.

 

[llamaking122]

I would have them test the alt. and if its bad have them test the new alt before you leave the store. ive gotten bad alts out of the box from them

 

[koda2000]

maybe i'm wrong, but wouldn't connecting a test light between the battery + terminal and the cable always light up? i'm not so sure this proves there is a draw, but somethings going on. with the key off when you reconnect the cable, do you hear any relays click? at any rate, if you need to keep driving this vehicle while you figure out what's going on, i would pull the battery cable when you leave the truck. with a fully charged battery you should be able to drive a pretty good distance before it goes flat (especially if you don't need to have your lights on) and if you're carrying a spare battery with you just in case, you should be okay. my money is still on the alternator or wiring. let us know what you find out.

 

[my white eddie]

Alternator is good, both the old one and the remanufactured repalcement.
Problem lies with the short thats draining the charging system. When the
short draws 11 V its impossible for the alternator to keep up.

 

[my white eddie]

there should be some draw, very minimal (i.e. clock, radio memory etc.)
but not enough to cook a hot dog on a 12V bulb. When I connect the
pos. cable to the battery it sparks alot, but I don't hear any relays click
or anything come on. Can't drive with a charged battery as it drains it
in less than 10 minutes with everything I can turn off , off. I made it
less than 5 miles with a battery swap halfway. Keep 'em coming though,
I need food for thought.

 

[Turdle]

A "short" does not "draw" voltage. Voltage potential is always present.

A short "will" allow current flow though--

you need to hook a test meter, set to measure amps, between the positive battery post and the positive battery terminal. With key off and all fuses in place, how many milliamps draw do you have?



Connecting a test light in this manner will always get a light--because there will always be a potential difference, thus allowing the light bulb to glow. Koda is right.

 

[koda2000]

boy this ones got me scratching my head. it's not a "short" or something would be burning up, but what could flatten a charged battery in <10 mins??? maybe try pulling fuses and see if that reduces/eliminates the big spark when you reconnect the battery cable to try to identify which circut has the draw.

one of my rules of thumb when something like this happens is, the last thing you messed with is the last thing you f'd up (even if it seems unrelated).

 

[Turdle]

If this was driven at night, I venture to guess the heater and headlights flattened the battery, due to lack of recharge.