Dual Post Battery, HO Alternator.. Questions..

[SwaintaN]

Standard battery from the store about a year or so old. It started making the boiling sound about a week ago.. When i started to charge it.. I only recharged it because when i got into it a week later it was dead again! The reason I had it jumped was the wife wasnt here with the van and i needed to take ex to go get the kids from school which round trip is an hour of ex being on. Then the next day I would get a hard to start ex.. So.. not sure...


now when it comes to the battery cables. all the positive battery cables have been replaced with high quality cabling an terminals. im about to do the negative cable system with a 0 gauge wiring system as well...

 

[SwaintaN]

Ok im back.. so no head way seeing how i didnt need to fix the explorer.. until now.. fixing it should have been a want to not a need to.. but our van caught on fire.. so yeah..

Ok I have the stuff I need to redo the negative wires like i did the positive wires.. so thats a plus... i now have a good like GOOD negative and positive battery clamps

the alternator is now on the top post with the other wires..

NOW I have ran into so MANY problems.. I had to do a bench test on the starter.. its good.. so.. while im down there, the little wire is fried so is the big power wire.. so I have to fix those.. at the top up near the battery the Stater wire has apparently been nicked and arching up against a ground.

so ive fixed that... now could that have been causing my drain? once im done with the negative is done (while im doing all this the battery is on trickle charge) so ill be able to throw in a fully charge battery...

plus watched tons of youtubes to find the drain... so as long as this blizzard dont hit like its calling for.. ill be able to do it... and update.. and of course have more questions

 

[awood]

As these Explorers get older, weird problems can creep in. Battery cables are a known issue. My pos cable also chafed on the frame. It was a head scratcher when I would crank to start, release the key to "run", but the starter stayed engaged. Had to pull the battery post clamp to shut it off!

The negative cable has a tap-off point for a body ground about halfway down the cable. Make sure you provide a ground here if you replace the cable. As I recall (this happened a couple of years ago) I ran a single cable all the way down to the engine, then stacked a shorter cable on the bolt and ran it back up to the body ground point.

Here's an easy way to check for battery drain. Use a test light (incandescent bulb, not LED). Remove a battery post clamp (either one but not both). Put the test light between the post and the clamp you removed. If the bulb doesn't light you have no drain. If it glows very dim, it's probably your clock drawing a little power and is probably ok. If it glows bright, you have a drain. Pull fuses one at a time until the light goes out. You've found the circuit where the drain is.

Your volt meter is useless for this test, since the test light will provide a "load" to the circuit and give you a valid test.

Good luck.

 

[SwaintaN]

my ground reconfig is actually more of a just adding situation. Im taking ALL the stock grounds putting them on a ground block, running the ground block to the battery. Then adding a 0 gauge ground to the body to the block, then the block to the Battery. Also adding a 0 gauge straight to the battery not the ground block, but attached to the frame. so ill basically be adding two more grounds, both 0 gauge a body and frame. my positive battery cables were all redone already but the two wires that i just found problemmatic are literally the only two I did nothing to.

But have redid those two now, so hopefully they will not be a concern after this, hoping they were the draining problem as well, plus the no start problem.

 

[SwaintaN]

Ready to blow her up! Gahh.. Ok so Positive cables i redid before right.. I just did negative with adding a 0 gauge to frame and body... now i think im working with a fd battery.... still just the CLICK from the starter fender relay...

haha i know over kill with 0 gauge but i figured i would do same to neg as i did positive.

 

[SwaintaN]

my lay out

 

[awood]

I have a diagram that shows a black wire (from the power distribution block) that mates with a red wire (from the battery) at the relay on the fender.

Could be a misprint though.

 

[willindsay]

You're missing the engine ground

 

[SwaintaN]

I have a diagram that shows a black wire (from the power distribution block) that mates with a red wire (from the battery) at the relay on the fender.

Could be a misprint though.

no its there, comes from fuse box over to fender mount relay, yeah its a small black one. thats still there.

You're missing the engine ground

I didnt draw it out, its still connected to the one that goes from frame to back of motor.

 

[SwaintaN]

ok fully charged battery... go out still one loud CLICK from fender mount.. so i stuck the old trusty screw driver to it and then the starter just makes ONE CLICK... hit it with the hammer while trying.. ONE LOUD CLICK.... bad starter?

 

[willindsay]

Sounds like it to me.

 

[SwaintaN]

i gotta get it to start so i can start finding the drain.. however neighbor just told me he had older car, starter died on him and it was the starter causing the drain.. so wonder if thats what it is.

in that bad situation where van caught on fire so have no ride and just the explorer so gotta get it ready for driving.

 

[willindsay]

Just a random though I'm sure has laready been mention but did you replace the fender mounted solenoid yet?

That'd be a cheap an easy fix.

 

[SwaintaN]

haha no thats one of the things right now we are trying to find out if its bad or not.. I cant drop a ton of money into this part or that part till i figure out what part, i used a screw driver layed it across the fender noid and starter just CLICK one loud time. all the power going to the fender noid is same w/ battery but pretty sure now its the battery from what i keep reading because the battery has had to be charged 100umpteen times and jumped etc... so starting to think biggest culprit is the battery

hopefully done w/ garage soon and can get the ex in there to run new starter wires. then try it again. then find a battery to borrow from someone to eliminate that as a problem.. then turn to the noid and starter.

moved this year, so broke as a joke, van caught on fire a week ago, have no ride nor no job plus wife isnt getting hired.. 1000 places have tried to get into and noone.. not even to flip a burger.. wtf is the AACJ degree for?!?! Ugh.. sorry it was a rant..

 

[SwaintaN]

I am back up and running! New Battery, New Starter Fender Solenoid. New Starter and new starter wires... Plus crap load ground wires... Back up and running, i did the parasitic drain test i have .03 with car off... YAY! think its all fixed now, ty everyone.