Strange electrical "waver" 89 BroncoII

[ragajungle]

In the past couple of days in the morning before sunrise when I go out to start the truck All of the power (Fuel pump, interior lights, parking and head lamps) waver ~~~~~~~~~ It goes away a bit when you rev it, but at idle its enough to give you a seizure.

-New Alt, batt, neg cable, pos cable in July.
Volts outta Alt are good, battery tests okay.......just a strange waver - not a flicker, a consistent up and down about 1 second on 1 second off....

Any thoughts

 

[WNYBroncoBill]

Any guess would be a guess. But on my 88 BII XL I had some reliability problems. I replaced the pressure fuel pump (under the driver's door frame), the fuel pump relay and fuse. Eventually after many failures on the road, I removed the inertia realy under the dash- right hand side under the heater. I jumper wired it out of the fuel pump circuit and the truck has run without a problem for 2000+ miles since removL.

I would look at this uneeded part and determine if you need it. The only time it is necessary is if you are in an accident with high "G'" forces. I would bet that most of us don't anticipate this. So make your choice.

Bill

 

[ragajungle]

Bill,
Thank you for the response.
I have heard that from others with the 2nd pump. Mine; however, doesn't have the 2nd pump... The issue doesn't affect the truck at all other than the lights (dash, head lights, and that I can hear the Fuel Pump being affected) I guess I am just worried that it could develop into a future problem. I have seen this happen to multiple GM vehicles - just the other day there was a (1997?) Bonneville in front of me that was doing it. You could see the headlights and tail lights quickly "waver" at a stop light.

 

[ragajungle]

UPDATE--Solved

I think it might be a grounding issue.This morning it was "wavering" and went under the hood and jiggled the neg battery cable to see if it affected the symptom - it was loose. Strange because I just put an entire new ground harness on in July... Turns out the cheap-o harness' terminal end (The part that tightens around battery terminal was cracked) I'll be putting a new BETTER Quality one on this wkend. I am leaning toward the newer OEM style metal band and screw set-up.

 

[ragajungle]

Update-Unsolved

The waver is back with a vengeance... Now I can watch as the headlights, dashlights, voltage needle on the dash waver/flicker at a fast rate until the truck is warmed up.
>The neg ground terminal is tright
>The ground and all sub grounds have been replaced and are tight
>Alternator new as of July
>Belts new and spec as of July

Could this just be a crap Alternator? (I am sure that the VR/ voltage regulator is built into the Alt on Post '85 Fords)

Thanks for any input

 

[ragajungle]

Well I scoured the site and found this:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274773&highlight=Voltage+flickering but again no definitive answer.... just a lot of people throwing $ around.

 

[OneLever]

ragajungle I am tracking down a very similar problem. Up until now I have been documenting my troubleshooting in this thread. In the next few weeks I will have more time to troubleshoot and I intend to fix it. Until then here is a site that I found which contains some useful information.

Post number eight in the thread you found by Reejerey is a good test for parasitic drain even though that is not our problem.

 

[rookieshooter]

This is interesting to say the least. Keep up the good detective work and please post your findings.

Only thing I can think of is...Have you stopped near a train crossing at night, only to have the truck shaking, all your lights blinking, things flying all over in the cab, X-crossing sign shaking and to have some round saucer shaped thing hovering over you lately?

 

[ragajungle]

This is interesting to say the least. Keep up the good detective work and please post your findings.

Only thing I can think of is...Have you stopped near a train crossing at night, only to have the truck shaking, all your lights blinking, things flying all over in the cab, X-crossing sign shaking and to have some round saucer shaped thing hovering over you lately?

You mean............I am not the only one? They got you too! [insert 1960's sifi music here]


On a serious note I am going to try to pull and swap the Fuel Pump Relay...Reason being is that even with the lights off in the morning the gauge dashes and dances a bit and the only thing pulling and draw is the Fuel Pump. So it reasons that somewhere in there something is not making good contact or creating too much of a draw... Looks like I may recheck all my FP wiring too...

 

[ragajungle]

this is what the space capsule looks like everytime the strange loss of power occurs:

It is some sort of hideous terrestrial transport pod