Ford Alternator question

A great idea, I assume you have long heavy gauge cables tying it all together. One battery with two charging systems. I don't see how doing that could be a problem, but I wonder if the current running into your vehicle charging system from hot water machine could cause a problem. You will figure it out. I can help with some testing procedures if you want to eliminate the possibilities. I worked for Autozone 4 years in the 90's and we got many parts returned which mgmt always blamed on the customer. Bad parts are a common occurrence with many parts suppliers. You could put a diode between the battery and vehicle alternator which will only let current travel in one direction. It would however, add to the many things that could go wrong later. Disconnect it from the hot water machine and take it to parts house for free testing. I do hope you put fuses in between those long cables for protection.
 
I needed that truck yesterday so I carried a spare battery jumper around just in case, but lo and behold, from the moment I turned the key till we got home the alternator charged up fine, even though we used the hot machine all day yesterday cleaning coils.

It's working fine now. I'm sure it will pass inspection if I take if off for testing today.

Perplexing.
 
outdoorprowash said:
A great idea, I assume you have long heavy gauge cables tying it all together. One battery with two charging systems. I don't see how doing that could be a problem, but I wonder if the current running into your vehicle charging system from hot water machine could cause a problem. You will figure it out. I can help with some testing procedures if you want to eliminate the possibilities. I worked for Autozone 4 years in the 90's and we got many parts returned which mgmt always blamed on the customer. Bad parts are a common occurrence with many parts suppliers. You could put a diode between the battery and vehicle alternator which will only let current travel in one direction. It would however, add to the many things that could go wrong later. Disconnect it from the hot water machine and take it to parts house for free testing. I do hope you put fuses in between those long cables for protection.
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The wire I'm using is from heavy duty jumper cables. When I had the lift I found it was cheaper to buy out of the box jumper cables and snip them than buy lengths by the foot.
 
Tony Shelton said:
The wire I'm using is from heavy duty jumper cables. When I had the lift I found it was cheaper to buy out of the box jumper cables and snip them than buy lengths by the foot.
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I remember I use to have to "jump off" a lot of cars. I had a better success rate using two pair of cables. Mainly because we only had the cheap ones to use. I read an article in Family Handyman recently explaining how "cheap" jumper cables use smaller wire and and cheap clamps.

Make sure you have a fuse at the battery, because that wire will burn your truck down if it were to find it's way to ground. My buddy in high school learned it the hard way.
 
All you have to do is look for the thickest wires you can find like 4 or 2 gauge, I will not use the thinner wire cables.

You have to remember that Tony really knows what he is doing, he has a degree in electrical engineering, he is not like many others on the bbs that act like he knows things from part time jobs or reading things on the internet, he does things that will do what he needs done and that will be safe and not jeopardize his business or family.
 
I don't have an engineering degree Chris. But I was an electrician in the USNavy and did electrical construction for two years after that wiring commercial buildings in Nashville.

I try to be safe. I have a fuse in the line to the pw. I think its about 50 amps. Its a neat little cigar of aluminum foil about finger thick. :rolleyes:

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
 
Tony Shelton said:
I don't have an engineering degree Chris. But I was an electrician in the USNavy and did electrical construction for two years after that wiring commercial buildings in Nashville.

I try to be safe. I have a fuse in the line to the pw. I think its about 50 amps. Its a neat little cigar of aluminum foil about finger thick. :rolleyes:

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
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You could use what is called a "fusable link". It is a short piece of wire 2 sizes smaller than the rest of the circuit. Just something I wanted to share. You might as well have an electrical engineering degree though.

A bad battery can mimick symptoms of other things. Even intermittently. Sometimes they would test bad even holding a charge and passing a load test. A bad battery can actually damage an alternator causing you to replace it and possibly ruining a new one. something else I wanted to share.

Always use the expensive heavier gauge jumper cables. The skinny ones only work for a low battery not a dead one which is usually the case with an alternator problem.
 
Tony Shelton said:
I don't have an engineering degree Chris. But I was an electrician in the USNavy and did electrical construction for two years after that wiring commercial buildings in Nashville.

I try to be safe. I have a fuse in the line to the pw. I think its about 50 amps. Its a neat little cigar of aluminum foil about finger thick. :rolleyes:

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
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I remember you saying you were an electrician in the navy, just thought you had the degree also, maybe even a certificate.

You are a lot sharper than most, I would trust you working on things.
 
Tony, have you worked any on that project we talked about?
 
I had a similar problem with my ford (still do from time to time) One thing that caused an issue was the ground so I added an additional ground right to the battery from the alternator. I also had a random diode issue with the alternator. I changed it out about 2-3 years ago but it seems to be back again as the alternator went out last night.
 
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