Please help, power problem.

[SwaintaN]

woooaaaa now confused... so i did some reading on the "big three upgrade" ok... well i dont have the money right now to do all 0 gauge wires.. so sticking with just upgrading to 4 gauge wires.. here is my ? tho, when it says from Alt to Bat, with our Exs do we skip that round solenoid thing? instead of going from alt to it then from it to battery just go straight from alt to battery?

 

[SwaintaN]

but you still have the wire that was in the block of plastic,that you just separated?the wire your pointing to in the 1st pic?

the wire on the left i upgraded from what it was to a 4 gauge and the wire on the right the tiny one is still there same size as it is.

 

[SwaintaN]

i didnt do the Big 3 because I didnt use the 0 Gauge through out, but here is my final job. The wire from the HO Alternator is a 4ga with a water proof ANL 80 fuse, that wire goes to the round thing (for now calling it solenoid), then i took the wire coming from the solenoid to the battery and made it a 4ga wire. The thin red wire that is to the far right on the solenoid was cut out of the black and had a new terminal on it, found out the previous owner had it all frayed etc. The grounds were left as they were but I added a 0ga ground to the inner fender to the battery. New Terminals are on both the pos and neg of the battery.

So a few more questions for you who are following and helping (thank you so much).

Why couldnt I take the wire directly from the alternator and connect it to the battery?

What can be making the wiring from the ANL fuse to the solenoid (from alt) getting really hot?

So yeah after all that, forbid its at night and raining because it didnt improve. (pic) of Lights on, Fan on, Wipers on.

Now last but not least, while under the hood, looked at more wires to see if anything needs replaced... found this.. where does it go?!?!

 

[SwaintaN]

So update, this time the truck started right up! YAY... still getting volt drops though boo.. but main factor of the draining out and dieing is stopped.

 

[SwaintaN]

update

so BS... went to drive the ex today after it sat yesterday... wont start.. battery dead again!!!! took battery up, tested fine... tried the hi beams when i got back after it was charged, took it back up, still fine! upgraded them wires and terminals, wtf?!!?! checked fuses etc nothing drawing a serious outrageous amount, just normal crap??!?!??!? i guess next take up the alternator even though its new!

 

[SwaintaN]

You test resistance using a multimeter set to ohms.... You don't want more than a couple milliohms per foot. You also want to test for shorts. Pull both battery cables off the battery, put positive from your multimeter to positive and negative to negative. For this test, you want ~no continuity.... If you have low resistance for this test, you have a dead short.

Then using your multimeter, test at your battery for anything drawing current. Do this on the amps setting, the negative battery cable attached and the positive disconnected. Hook the negative probe to the positive post on the battery and the positive probe on the positive battery cable, unless you have a fancy one like me, then you just put the clamp around the positive battery cable and ground the multimeter. With the key in the off position and the doors closed, it shouldn't be drawing more than 400 or 500 milliamps for radio memory and the ECU.

Ok some im a dumb ass when it comes to reading this multimeter under the ohm symbol there is different settings. for the volt part there is a 9.5 or 5. What does the Ohm one need set to? Also when you say the first part i want to touch the battery cables right?

This is the one i bought

 

[SwaintaN]

bump please

 

[SwaintaN]

friend read it for me. Heres what we got.

OHM Tested at 200 setting, both cables off. Reading is 501.
Volt Test at 9v Setting, neg on, pos off. Starts at 8.00 and goes to 7.60 where it stays.

lol did the volt test not milliamp, so reran it did it. set to 20m in amp with one neg to battery and pos cable off, neg probe to pos battery and pos probe to pos cable set to 20m it reads .31

 

[SwaintaN]

ok must be talking to my self. so it started and did all them test, dead today... really... bs..... so i called some ppl... found out i got the battery in 10/06 so it out side its warranty, almost 5 yrs old. i guess next battery is the Gold at Advance Auto for 118 w/ 8 yr warranty

 

[SwaintaN]

so la de da de da... battery tested THIRD TIME, alternator tested second time.. and did them wires... battery has bad cell(s). new battery in, so hopefully from here on out.... smooth sailing... oh yeah... got the battery for free.. no warranty but 100% free and didnt realize it till i got home... so yay!

now back to another question i had... I have a top post w/ side post as well, what happens if i run the alternator wire to the battery instead of to the solenoid?

 

[Xeek]

that is just a rubber boot. no fuse or anything.
the thin wire on the right with the yellow plastic lug on it goes to the starter
if jd hasnt cut it off to replace your starter before, it should look like this:

the labels are backwards tho, ring connecter goes on fender and spade connecter goes to the wire off the starter. stock anyway, if you use larger wire just put a ring on the other end and screw it right onto the starter.
the larger wire on that boot goes to the battery directly.
and the thick

this is the positive wire and negative wire that come from the terminals where do they go to and how long are they?

the thickest wire (+) goes to the starter. the thinner one, also to starter. thats the wire with the yellow lug in your first pic
? #2 = starter

the negative wire goes to a bolt on the frame and then goes to the engine block just above the engine mounting plates.
engine block=frame & ? #1 = engine block. but it doesnt really matter, as long as it touches both.
but with custom wiring you could just run 2 separate wires instead of 1 wire like this one

and the plug is obvious what it plugs into.




as for the stock alternator wire. i havent touched mine. but theres a connecter plug and a ring connecter. dont know which goes to which but theres a plug-in and a wire that goes to the fender solenoid i believe.

 

[SwaintaN]

I ended up leaving the thick wire that goes to start alone, the lil wire that goves over to the fender solenoid was cut out of the plastic boot and had a ring terminal put on it and screwed on, the wire from fender solenoid to battery was upgraded to a 4 ga no fuse, alternator wire was upgrade to a 4ga anl fuse and directly to the battery, for the grounds i left them alone but added a 0 ga ground to the fender. only wire i got to work on now is that ground wire that is near the wiper motor, its broken, always has been, not sure where its suppose to attach.

 

[Xeek]

this one?

that attaches to the back on the cylinder head.
id youve ever taken your bracket that holds the alt/idler pulley/tensioner off, 3 bolts. those same holes are on the back of the heads. pick any one of them and bolt it back on. i dont see why you couldnt just use regular wire for that? dont know why they use a flat wire. its just a ground point

sorry i dont have pics of the holes. but feel on the back on the head and therell be 3 holes in a triangle shape

 

[SwaintaN]

ive never taken that bracket off, this thing has had some ummm ghetto (saying it nicely) wiring done to it, i keep finding more and more.. wont even talk about the radio wiring... i got some 8 ga black wire and terminals i throw it back on there, but ive never taken that part off so hopefully ill be able to find it easily

 

[Xeek]

these 3 holes. triangle with a freeze plug in the middle. same thing is on the back.

hopefully you still have the bolt with the other end of the wire left. if you dont have the bolt on the back, take one of your power steering bracket bolts or one from the other bracket i mentioned and goto the store and match up the thread size but get it about a half inch long bolt

 

[SwaintaN]

is it easy to get to in the back? hopefully the other part of that flat wire they used will still be there with the bolt


edit: oh yeah talking about windshield wiper motor, mine has two speeds, first click slow, then all the way click still kinda slow, not like other cars ive been in with a variable speed and pretty fast on last click, is that normal for our exs.

 

[Xeek]

uh, i did mine without the hood on, due to the engine build. but you just reach back there around the side of the intake manifold. you should either feel 3 holes with a freeze plug in the middle of them, or 2 holes and the 3rd with the bolt/rest of strap.

im not sure the reason why for the flat strap/wire. so idk about using a regular wire until you know 100% why they used that stock.


my wipers(i havent driven it in so long), i think using left hand and turning counter clockwise i get off, slow, fast. turning clockwise from off i get intermittent starting with large gaps between wipes up until almost like the slow setting when turned all the way.
some exploders may have just a 2 speed and no intermittent, i have no idea

 

[SwaintaN]

my control on it has the lil marks for slow, ok, fast, fastest speed.. but it just is slow and ughish... to bad i couldnt get my wifes from her van, them a super nice and fast,

they sell universal ground straps that look like that one, but ive only seen em for Semis

 

[tweakedlogic]

Humor me and test the alternator with the motor running and your multimeter in AC mode. If you have any more than about .3 volts in a/c mode, then your rectifier is going/gone bad. No load, and load.
The alternator by design out puts ac voltage. the rectifier converts it to DC using diodes.

 

[SwaintaN]

Humor me and test the alternator with the motor running and your multimeter in AC mode. If you have any more than about .3 volts in a/c mode, then your rectifier is going/gone bad. No load, and load.
The alternator by design out puts ac voltage. the rectifier converts it to DC using diodes.

so turn the ex on, switch the mm to AC, how do i test the alternator though? what am i suppose to put the negative and positive probes on?