Woo it's been a minute since I've been here. I haven't had the Bronco in my sig since... uhh... 2004 lol.
Anyway! Fast forward 20 years, here I am lol. My wife has a 98 V6 (her car from high school) that, aside from this issue, still runs like a champ despite all the mileage on it. Anyway... it is delegated to our spare vehicle (when it wants to behave lol) as it hasn't been her daily driver for about 7 years now, but I like to drive it every now and then so it doesn't just sit in the driveway and rot. So about a year or so ago I drove it to work. Just before I got to work the radio began cutting in and out. I didn't think much of it as it happened right as I was pulling into a parking spot.
When I went to leave the car was dead. I got a jump from a coworker, and went on my way. Shortly after the radio began cutting out and, well... next thing you know all the electrical stuff one by one started to fade. Gauge readings dropped, radio gone, you name it. I made a quick turn off the main road so I didn't get stuck blocking rush hour traffic and the car promptly died right after.
I called my father in law asking if he was able to bring out some tools and give me a hand with the car. We figured if it couldn't hold a charge then the alternator must've taken a dump. So we went and got a new Motorcraft OEM replacement, put it in, gave it a jump. Aaaaaaand it died. We did this with two more alternators and even had them test the most recent one as a precaution and it came back good. But... the car was still in the dumps. So we went and got a trailer, jumped it with enough juice to get it on the trailer and hauled it home.
OK, so maybe the battery is toast. So I went and got a replacement battery and she fired right up. Cool... kept an eye on it idling, seemed to be OK. Drove it into town to get it inspected so I could renew the registration and up to that point it did well. Once it passed and I left the shop it started showing signs of failure. I was able to get it home without breaking down, thankfully. For laughs I replaced the battery to see if it made any difference, but nope.
So the next thing is the fusible link, right? How about just a new fat fused power cable and bypass it completely direct to the battery. Yeah, that didn't work either.
Went I probe everything with a meter, once I pull jumper cables off everything has a slow gradual drop in voltage. If I rev the engine to see if I can get ANY output from the alternator the voltage just drops faster. I checked continuity in the wiring and everything is showing continuity.
So I'm stumped at this point to what it could be. There isn't a trickle draw anywhere either, because if the battery is charged and I let it sit for a couple weeks it still fires up like a champ, just won't keep a charge. The ground strap from the body to the engine appears to be in good shape too.
Any ideas where to look at this point?
Anyway! Fast forward 20 years, here I am lol. My wife has a 98 V6 (her car from high school) that, aside from this issue, still runs like a champ despite all the mileage on it. Anyway... it is delegated to our spare vehicle (when it wants to behave lol) as it hasn't been her daily driver for about 7 years now, but I like to drive it every now and then so it doesn't just sit in the driveway and rot. So about a year or so ago I drove it to work. Just before I got to work the radio began cutting in and out. I didn't think much of it as it happened right as I was pulling into a parking spot.
When I went to leave the car was dead. I got a jump from a coworker, and went on my way. Shortly after the radio began cutting out and, well... next thing you know all the electrical stuff one by one started to fade. Gauge readings dropped, radio gone, you name it. I made a quick turn off the main road so I didn't get stuck blocking rush hour traffic and the car promptly died right after.
I called my father in law asking if he was able to bring out some tools and give me a hand with the car. We figured if it couldn't hold a charge then the alternator must've taken a dump. So we went and got a new Motorcraft OEM replacement, put it in, gave it a jump. Aaaaaaand it died. We did this with two more alternators and even had them test the most recent one as a precaution and it came back good. But... the car was still in the dumps. So we went and got a trailer, jumped it with enough juice to get it on the trailer and hauled it home.
OK, so maybe the battery is toast. So I went and got a replacement battery and she fired right up. Cool... kept an eye on it idling, seemed to be OK. Drove it into town to get it inspected so I could renew the registration and up to that point it did well. Once it passed and I left the shop it started showing signs of failure. I was able to get it home without breaking down, thankfully. For laughs I replaced the battery to see if it made any difference, but nope.
So the next thing is the fusible link, right? How about just a new fat fused power cable and bypass it completely direct to the battery. Yeah, that didn't work either.
Went I probe everything with a meter, once I pull jumper cables off everything has a slow gradual drop in voltage. If I rev the engine to see if I can get ANY output from the alternator the voltage just drops faster. I checked continuity in the wiring and everything is showing continuity.
So I'm stumped at this point to what it could be. There isn't a trickle draw anywhere either, because if the battery is charged and I let it sit for a couple weeks it still fires up like a champ, just won't keep a charge. The ground strap from the body to the engine appears to be in good shape too.
Any ideas where to look at this point?