I will post pictures of what what this looks like in a few days.
ok so for the last three or so weeks i've been having a problem, well an electrical problem with the mustang. Basically when the engine is running there is no voltage going to the battery hints why I've gone through three batteries. (gotta love the warranty)
To fix the problem i tried to change the battery multiple times which didn't work. then i thought ok no 14 volts while the engine is running ok alternator.
Took out the old alternator which released the belt and while the belt was out why not take out the fan and pulleys cuz they didn't look nice. So had to sand/prep/paint all of them which took a couple of days (only work 1-3 hours a day).
Put the new belt, pulleys, fan, and alternator in got the belt tension right and fired up the engine only to find 12.6V on the battery so we thought the alternator is not working. took it out and got it tested to find out it failed the test. oh great the brand new alternator is broken, got a replacement and tested that one fail now the guy is like "maybe our testing equipment is bad"
We go to kragen/oriley in burbank and they test it passes ok so we know the battery work the alternator works.
What else is in the charging system? . Time to go Mustangs Etc. and see if we can find a solution. Gilbert is says that it might be the voltage regulator. oh yah the voltage regulator (the thingy that knocks the voltage from 19V to 14V). So we get a new one put it in still no voltage at the battery.
We test the leads at the alternator while the engine is running and 19V so its like well we know the alternator is working so we know its the voltage regulator so we get and another new regulator and nope doesn't work. so we ask some mechanics how to test the regulator but they didn't know so we got another new regulator installed it and nope didn't work. but one of the mechanics gave us an idea he said "maybe you have a wire switched or something". Sean thought continuity of the wires.
So we test the positive works, negative is just grounding, then sure enough we test the field line and no continuity meaning the wire is not connected to the right place. But I followed the wire from one terminal to the other so it made no sense. Sean was like nope the wire is not connected so I followed the wire looking at every inch of the wire looking for a problem.
OMG sean look and this sure enough the wire was not even connected to itself. But its was at the bottom of the engine compartment and the side facing the wall. The previous owner had cut three of the wires to install a audio system to the alternator but changed his mind and had twisted the wires together each and wrapped them in electrical tape.
Now to give you an idea of what is happening we have 700amps with 19volts going through a 12 gauge wire. A twisted wire is acting an a resister and an old electric water heater is a coiled wire with electricity running through it creating heat. Basically amplify that by a ton and you get an extremely red wire that it melted the copper and created zinc powder and burnt a huge gap in the wire.
So Dad and me are extremely happy to see that it is actually working (btw its never worked even when we first got the car). I think the old alternator and voltage regulators are probably still fine but there wore looking so we're going to keep the new parts.
Spring break - the rest of it
18 hours ago
