Thank you so much for explaining in simple terms how this wiring works. Ford wiring can become so complex you made it so simple to understand and follow . This will help me wire my truck correctly thank you again and may God continue to bless you great job
Thank You very much for this presentation. It help me locate the broken wire when my F100 from 1965 stoped charging the battery. Broken yellow wire! I found it when You explained "this wire should have 12 volt all the time" and "this green wire should have 12 volt when the ignitionkey is set on run". Thanks from Sweden!
Thanks So Much, It is hard to find anyone who remembers these things. My nephew remembers it being taught in his mechanics school classes and used to know it but I don't think they teach it any more. You saved the day!
Excellent Video. One of the BEST Simplest on RU-vid for Ford External Regulator. Purchased 91 7.3 IDI w/Charging Problem: ONLY 8v registering when ignition turned on.... 1. Installed...New Regulator, No Change 2 Installed NEW Alternator.... No Change.. 3. Determined it was a wire issue. Diagnosed with key ON...NO power to the Green/red Wire at the REGULATOR he's showing you, Then Traced Green/Red from the Regulator (Consequently... Orange wire from Reg does not get power to the Alternator... if Orange Wire does not get power, ...Alt consequently does not get "Excited/wake up" to begin producing power off the main terminal of Alternator=10mm which to the battery) this green/red wire goes thru the firewall. all the way to the Speedo Blue/Red wire (Some way connected to tach. Reconnected Lt Blue/red wire together, the tested and got Juice to Green/Red at Regulator, then connected it al up & got juice to Orange (Field) on Alt. Fired it up and amp Gauge/Battery now recieving 14v power! Thanks Awesome !
Glad you were able to get it charging! Some vehicles use an alternator signal for the tachometer driver (more common on older mechanical diesels that don't have an ignition coil to sense from). Thanks for the comment!
Hey i just want to let you know that this video helped me find the eletrical issue thats been causing me headaches since i bought my 78 ford. thank you so much man. My truck is fixed now !
Thank you so much, I'm about to use a G1 Ford alternator to produce DC in an off grid configuration and wasn't sure if the Stator connection was necessary, you solved my dilemma !
just had a vacation guys weekend with a few friends i only see once or twice a year. i travel the furthest, and drove my 1985 ford bronco fullsize with the 351 windsor H.O. i had just bought a few months back. it didnt seem to have any electrical issues, just some minor cosmetic stuff and needed a radio something fierce. i drove it around a few minutes with the guy in south dakota, the dana 44s in front worked, everything seemed solid. i paid the man, and drove it away. the first gas stop i shut the truck down, and fueled. after fueling, i started the truck, and it kept trying to start even after backing the key off. i wiggled it like crazy to no avail, and had to pop the hood and battery line. I was about to call the guy and get my money back on the spot, but my dickhead cousin that gave the ride out had already took off and had my phone in his back seat still. so, i hooked the line back up to see what was what, and nothing happened. so i got in, it started fine. thought, what the hell, it was cheap, and starters are cheap. drove it 430 miles home no problems except i thought the dash lights were a little dim. put in a cd player, drove it for a few weeks, and every now and then it would do that same thing, but i kept the right size socket next to my seat to pull the line from the solenoid at all times. finally the solenoid died, so i put in a new one as i was waiting to buy a new starter for another week, and the new solenoid was much the same. finally got a starter, third solenoid *counting one that was in it* and voila. no problems. so there begins the road trip. (the next morning) i make it from williston nd, to just outside of duluth. about half hour before duluth, the truck was losing power, i shut down radio, heat, slowed wipers as slow as i could handle and no brights, still didnt quite make it. i was about 80 miles short of my friends and dead in the water. they bought two batteries at 1:30 am and rescued me. put in a new battery, started right up, made it to the cabin. lights were ALMOST out by the time we made it but we made it. after replacing the alternator, regulator, solenoid YES AGAIN just for kicks and buying a bunch of spools of auto wire and connectors I still hadn't figured out the problem. It took me three batteries to make it home and my last gas stop the truck barely barely turned over. it was the last time the truck would start. i made it to the driveway, dim ass lights and cold, let truck idle for a few seconds and shut it off. it was dead when i tried to turn it. LUCKYYYYYY. so at any rate, im going to watch this video a few times to memorize it but the system is more basic than i thought. if thats all it needs to run a vehicle and charge, then im probably going to cut out a mess of wire and just start over. i want to say bad ground but i ran it for 2 months with only the starter acting up once in a while, so i dunno. by this video though i may have a wire wrong... either way, thank you for simplifying it for me, im just starting to DIY mechanic. just weird i made it like 600 miles and now that i put in all NEW parts the system is totally nonfunctional. truck runs effing great btw.
Very helpful....Im pretty new to electrical...Go back about 2 years and ask me how it worked id have no clue. More mechanically oriented...This is the only thing I have been having a hard time figuring out as far as older basic wiring systems go. I understand it well now, thanks.
Hey guy it definitely did, I had a fire on the engine and under the hood on my Class A RV , 460 Ford and having to pretty much figure out where everything goes,, vidios like this really help, so thanks, and keep up the good work, -- You can't get much info off the computer today, unless you just stumble across it, So thanks again,Rick / Arizona
i have a 82 ford e150 that was giving me nightmares for years could not figure it out all my lights were flashing and recently it was acting like it was not charging at all changed alt. reg. bat. sol. added grounds and cleaned every ground on the van, in the end it was a 2 cent connecter that was broke in half where it plugs into the reg. changed that and g2g very informative video
Awesome explanation. Thanks. 89 F350 7.3 that won't charge. batteries test good. new alt and regulator. was working for a few days, then back to not charging.
@seapeddler Yup, the Delco 1 wire was a very common upgrade to many of our 12v generator based tractors. For the Fords you can also upgrade to a 3G alternator in much the same manner. I updated my truck a 200A rewound 3G ford and haven't looked back. Well worth it for the plow truck!
I found that the best solution for the Ford alt. upgrade was to supplant a Delco CS130D unit. This requires only the 'L' wire on the regulator harness. Haven't looked back.
I have a 66 bronco that I just rewired and everything works but the alternator wouldn't charge. This is not how the wiring diagrams showed to wire it. Diagrams showed s on regulator to stater on alternator. Put 12v switched to s on regulator and everything works like it should. Awesome!
@maverikx99 The thick yellow wire is spliced into the Battery + output of the alternator. On this instance ('85 F350 diesel) the gray connector was a +12V main supply to the cab. The wire is part of a Y where the lower leg goes to the alternator Batt 12v, left upper leg went to the starter solenoid to charge the battery and the right upper leg fed power to the cab. Most likely you would find that instead of a Y between the alt/solenoid that the cab would connect directly to the solenoid +12v.
I'm still unclear about the S terminal. I see diagrams and mentions online that even for alternators, that S is for stator. Others like yourself, say that its actually for connecting to switched 12v from the ignition. I have a 1970 F350 with alternator Im trying to figure out
does the voltage regulator need to be body grounded? I have an 84 Lincoln, it charges at 13.9 volts, but the check charging system lamp turns on. when I unbolt the regulator from the body, voltage goes to 14.4 and the light goes out. I'm not sure what's wrong.
Christopher Kleman I'm having trouble disconnected the red and black capped wires connected to the alternator. I am attempting to take these off before the remvoing the alternator to test why my battery is losing its charge
I have 97 jeep. Have put 2 new alternators on and I am still getting low volts. Someone told me could be little black box on back of alternator. Then was told pcm. any ideas what or how to fix. THANKS
Your video helped me out tremendously. I have a 69 f-100 , someone told me the alternator had a built-in voltage regulator, so....l bypassed the external regulator. After that my battery would die out after 3 days use. I couldn't figure out what was the problem. The alternator on your vid. Is the same as mine. So....l went back to hooking up the external voltage regulator. It's working great now. The only thing l've noticed different is that every time l turn headlites on my battery gauge indicates the charge needle moves toward charge instead of discharge. Can you explain why this is happening? Thank you and God bless.
I'm glad it was able to help you Edyon! So when you turn the headlights on, the current draw causes a voltage drop at the battery. The voltage regulator detects this drop and signals the alternator to increase it's output to make up for the drop caused by the headlight draw. What you're seeing in the bump of the voltage gauge needle is this response by the regulator and alternator. If the bump in the needle seems excessive, you can measure the voltage at the battery to see the change when you turn the headlights on to make sure the voltage regulator isn't overshooting. Glad to hear you're keeping the '69 alive! I was going to fix up a '68 and had disassembled the truck and was cleaning/painting and getting ready to start rebuilding from the frame up when a big storm blew a tree over and smashed the cab!
@@ChristopherKleman sad to hear about what happened to your 68 f-100. I've had my 69 for over 38 years. Bought it from original owner, who was going into a nursing home. The 69 had beened parked for some time, the son seeing his father wasn't getting better, decided to put it up for sale. I went by this place every day to work. One morning l stopped at the red traffic lite, and l saw a man putting a for sale sign on the 69 swb 302, l was the first person to pull up even before the sign was taped on. I asked the man for the price, he said 1,200 bucks. The truck was the basic model , but was in very good condition. I wasn't letting this one get away. I offered 1,100 bucks , the seller agreed. I called my dad to bring the money because several other people were waiting to see if l would take it. I sat in the truck until my dad showed up with the money. It's still in very good condition. It's part of my family now, it's staying here. It was assembled in the Dallas plant. Hardly any rust, and it runs great.
would you happen to know how to bypass this type of regulator. im putting a newer 302 in my 1975 mercury comet and the alternator for that 302 is internally regulated. so is there a way to just jump a wire and bypass that regulator like is possible on the GM cars.
I need your help all my wiring is the same but when I connect field wiring to alternator I get voltage being the ignition of I replaced regulators and still same problem...that’s what is causing my battery to drain overnight... took alternator get tested and it shows good any ideas?
prayfawind - it should be fairly similar to more modern vehicles, however you'll have the fender solenoid where the current alternator stops at. Because of this, you have two options essentially - either upgrade all 4 wires (Battery to Solenoid, Solenoid to Alternator, Battery to Block and Body to Block) or you could leave the wire to the solenoid in tact and simply run your new alternator charging wire directly to the battery - however it is advisable to utilize a fuse or fusible link in this run.
@@ChristopherKleman thanks for the response, i was wondering if i could of 0 gauge directly from the battery to the alternator (fused between) didn't know if it mess up the external alternator voltage regulator, i've already ofc 0 gauged, the positive to the solenoid and negative ground to the block, even 0 gauge from the block to the chassis(over kill i know) , i also upgraded to a 100 amp alternator it's a 66 Mercury i am restoring
@@prayfawind That should be no problem at all as the solenoid terminal the original alternator wire is connected to is always connected to the battery anyways. Just make sure you maintain the 12 volt supply from the solenoid battery terminal to the voltage regulator and you should be good to go.
So are the tach wires required to make it work? The rest is pretty simple, but you passed over whether or not those wires were mandatory if used on another application.
There shouldn't be a splice on the field wire. The field wire should be hooked directly to the regulator. The splices are in the battery wire from the alternator (the main output lug that charges the battery). The reason for the splices in here is because one wire (the small one) is what provides constant battery supply to the voltage regulator, and the other larger spliced wire went to the cab wiring loom to power the rest of the vehicle.
Chris . my harness does not have the screw mount that that looks like it might ground or perhaps it just holds the wires in place. Question . Do I need a Ground wire. My old ford seems to over charge as the rpms increase . Voltage regulator and Alternator replaced. I have a parasitic draw I can not locate :{
I see u have a lot of knowledge about alternators and the wiring, I have a question if you can please answer it, i have neon 2003 , does it have a fuse between the alternator and the battery, or a fuse between the alternator and the relay box, the battery is good, but the car doesn't charge it well, I replaced the alternator n still wouldn't charge the battery, I had it tested and it passed, so in thinking its probably something in between, please help, thanks
84 ford ranger 2.8 v6 engine turn but won't start got gas to carb got power coil,starter,stare relay ,dist,grounds are good, got spark , idk thanx where else to go any help would be
Even with fuel to the carb, it's possible that the jets in the carb are plugged or the float stuck closed and not letting fuel in. If you give it a quick shot of starting fluid down the carb while cranking it and it fires up, it's confirmed that the issue is with the carb since you know you have fuel to the carb. If it still won't start with a shot of starting fluid while cranking, then the ignition system is likely the culprit. If the spark is weak, you might see the spark outside of the engine when testing, but when connected to the spark plug won't fire the spark plug due to the higher compression. This is of course assuming that the engine is known to be in correct time and nothing mechanical has gone wrong with it in regards to camshaft/distributor. Best of luck!
White wire with a black tracer stripe goes from the regulator to the alternator (S terminal on regulator to S terminal on the alternator) The Black wire with an orange tracer stripe is constant 12v power from the solenoid (B+ terminal on the regulator). Yellow with a white tracer stripe is the alternator output which also goes to the solenoid battery terminal, and the light green wire with a red tracer is switched 12v from the dash light. Depending on the vehicle (particularly if you have a gas engine) there is sometimes a wire run from the alternator to an electric choke heater - this is tied in with the S terminals and is usually also a white wire with black tracer.
hey how are you? have a question re: this charging system i have a voltage spike now granted it may vary depending on speed of the alt. but the heater will change, and also when i use the snow plow it overload. i have great batteries can this be ground issues? is Somthing set up wrong with the power feed for snow plow? send me any questions you may have thank you.
+mchl8 I'd first start with checking the grounds and that all the battery, alternator and regulator connections are clean. If the regulator is not getting a clean signal for the actual battery voltage it can cause intermittent spikes. After verifying all connections are clean and secure, if you still see spikes occurring without any loads being suddenly unloaded, it could be a regulator or alternator issue (worn brushes could also cause voltage spikes if the alternator is old enough to have worn the brushes out). Best of luck!
So, @2:30 you said that you can jump 12volts to the field terminal and see if it puts out voltage...but it will go full output so you don't want to run it that way for more that a few minutes? Ok, does it matter if the field wire is connected when jumping the 12volts to the alt.post? I have this Ford 6.9 diesel that doesn't charge (new alternator and regulator!) I even plugged in a brand new regulator to test the other "new" one! I'm going nuts trying to find a 1984 wiring diagram online,ebay,google,amazon. etc.( I haven't tried Nasa yet, but they claim they lost all their Apollo moon telemetry data... ?-)
As long as you have 12 volts at the alternator's output post, a jumper from the alternator post to the field terminal should cause the alternator to go full output and you should be able to measure a jump in the voltage. Best of luck!
@@jimmielittle4414 Yup, that's the one. If you don't get battery voltage on that terminal, check that it's connected on the battery side of the starter solenoid (if it's on the starter solenoid it will only be connected when cranking the engine). Secondly, make sure that the cable has continuity from the solenoid terminal to the alternator terminal - if it measures as an open circuit, there is a problem with it, and it may have burned itself out (acting as a fusible link). If this is the case you'll need to replace the wire from the solenoid to the alternator output. Also, it's best to disconnect both ends of the wire when checking for continuity, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to disconnect the connector from the voltage regulator too. Don't want to break the meter or get a false reading.
@@ChristopherKleman Thanks again! Well, this was really helpful as it turns out, I have a 3 post-isolator that has the battery output from the alternator at the center iso. post. (no wonder I was confused as no diagram or photo has it!) I checked that red wire for continuity and you guessed it...nada. Nothing. I'm not sure if I should just scrap the isolator at this point and replace it later or not. Ford wiring is creepy w/all the fuseable links etc. Can I just hook a new output wire of proper guage and try it?
I have a 78 mustang and my wiring is hacked to hell! is there anyway to bypass the voltage regulator and would it be safe? The voltage regulator was cut out so now the orange wire with the blue stripe from the field on the alternator has nowhere to go there's also five other wires that don't lead to anything I figure the orange wire with the blue stripe must get connected to one of those other five wires in order to bypass the regulator! I have a thick light green wire with purple hash marks, a white wire with blue hash marks, a white wire with either a red or orange stripe, a red wire with a white stripe, and a red wire with an orange stripe! Lol thank you anybody that even attemps to help me!
You can't really "bypass" the voltage regulator as you'll cause the alternator to go full field and crank out as many amps as it can - the likely result is that you may go over voltage and blow out other things on the vehicle. Your best bet is to pick up another voltage regulator and wire it back in, or upgrade the alternator to a newer 1-wire system. You should still have the light green wire with a red tracer going to the voltage regulator as a switched power source. And you'll have the yellow with a white tracer as the always-live 12v supply. You should then have a white wire with a black tracer that goes from the voltage regulator to the alternator field wire, and then you'll have another white wire with a black tracer that goes to the choke relay/choke heater. A red with a yellow tracer would be 12v while running which would also supply power to the choke relay if you have one, and a gray with a white trace would go from the choke relay to choke solenoid valve. White wire with blue stripe would go to a high output ignition module I think? I suspect things have been changed on the car over the years - perhaps aftermarket carb/choke system, aftermarket ignition system? Fortunately, in that era it doesn't take much to get them running, so I'd probably try to start fresh and re-wire under the hood. Best of luck!
check your dis.cap and make sure that the pin inside is touching the rotor or that your dis. is firing take a test light check For power going in and coming out if nothing coming out its your dis no fire no start every thing could be just right but no start thank
Your video is not very good, you cannot see what you are pointing at, the camera keeps shaking and you are not explaining the connections on the regulator worth a shit!, thumbs down on this clip
