bronc owner newbie, starting/charging question

[blackflags]

Just bought a 90 xlt, 5.8l with 134k. Everything is sound minus a couple things. The main problem is the starting. The battery won't hold a charge, i'll charge it and 1-2 days later, its dead. Now, I took the alternator and battery to autozone and they tested both and both were fine. So I start looking for bad wiring, found the starter solenoid/relay thing on the right fender, had a broken connection and replace that. Drive it around, later that day battery is dead. So I use a voltmeter to determine that there is nothing drawing current while the truck isn't running. The battery showed 14 volts while off and 13 while running, i turn the lights on and voltage dropped to 12. So the alternator isn't up to ****** I think. Its a brand new 540 cca battery, could the starter be drawing too much? Any ideas? Also why would the alt. and batt. checkout fine on autozone's machine?

 

[Yardape]

14 volts off and 13 volts running? Should be the other way around, haha. That sounds like your alt is not charging. Unhook the positive cable while running, if it shuts off then your alt is not charging. Try that and post back your results soon as you can.

 

[blackflags]

yeah sorry, got it backwards. Off I got 13.6 volts, running was 14 and revved up the highest it got was 14.2 but it did drop to high 12-low 13's with the lights on.

 

[Seabronc]

Either the voltage regulator or the alternator it's self is not working properly. See this post http://broncozone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15810

Good luck,

>-

 

[blackflags]

alright guys I found the culprit. Put a new alternator on it, while I was at it, decided to clean the battery cables. I noticed the neg. cable was almost broke off near the engine. Very loose, now I need to replace it.

 

[Shadow_D]

That will do it... Glad to see you got it figured out...

BTW: to the Zone!