1996 Ford Ranger Charging System

Hi bf6,

Thank you for the donation.

When the alternator is confirmed to be good and not charging, we ned to look at :

1. Alternator belt tension. Do you hav any screeching noise when the engine is running? If there are, check the belt tension AND the crank pulley harmnoc balancer if equipped. Quite often when the harminoc balancer fails, it would be slipping causing the abnormal noise and insufficient charging.

2. Did you test the voltage at the alternator main terminal when engine is running and what is the voltage? If the voltage is more than 13 volts, what is the voltage between the battery terminals?

To answer you first question.

Everything appears fine with the belt and pulleys. The belt is tight and tracks fine around the pulleys. The tensioner functions properly and there is no screeching or "dragging" sounds coming from the engine.

The second question regarding battery voltage. I started off with 12.10 volts so I placed the battery on charge. After the charge I let the battery sit until it stabilized at 12.86 and I checked the voltage from the main terminal on the alternator to the positive battery terminal. The voltage was .030, however the battery itself dropped to approximately the 12.15V. This was in less than a minute. I am going to replace the battery just to rule it out as a potential problem. If you have additional suggestions I would be happy to try them.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sorry if I did not make myself clear.

When testing the voltage, keep the engine running.

When you tested the voltage from the alternator main terminal, it should show battery voltage. If it is not battetry voltage, you have an open circuit between the alternator and the battery.

That was a little insulting. Hopefully you can see where I had to make an assumption as to which terminal was the "main" terminal. My assumption lead me to the "lug" connecting the 14 ga wire to the starter solenoid. Only to find apparently that is not the main you were talking about. However you still did not specify with any quantifiable terms how you define the main terminal. Is it the A terminal?

It does not matter I took the truck a local shop.

My sincere apologies.

It is a problem that we face here. We do not understand the technical capabilities of the person we are dealing with and if we go too basic, we get flaks for doing that and when we are too technical, we get complaints that we did not make things clear.

Yes, the main terminal is the A terminal.