this past weekend i finally got my stang up here. it ran great all day sat. and sunday but then tonight when i went to drive one of my buddies to his class, it started making the old click-click sound (starter motor). and i know what this is....its happened to me a couple of times. i checked all my cables and connections and then got it jumped - started right up. i let it idle for about a minute, and then decided to take it for a drive. well as im pulling out of the parking lot, it completely died after about 50 feet. I mean everything went out....PS, Lights, radio, everything. Luckily i managed to get it into a spot. but i mean now im kinda stumped bc it started fine after the charge and idled good....the only two thing i can think of is either it being the alternator goin bad or the TFI coil. ANY IDEAS???
HELP...CAR DIED AT SCHOOL!!!
- Thread starter 302stangGT
- Start date
88stangmangt
Active Member
sounds like you have a loose ground.........but with that description it could be anything.....
p.s if your dash and everything went out it isnt your alt or coil.
p.s if your dash and everything went out it isnt your alt or coil.
JUST had the same thing happen to me last week. Pull your battery, take it to Auto Zone or somewhere that can load test and charge your battery. It sounds like your battery to me. If the car starts with a newly charged battery, drive it right to an auto shop and have the charging system load tested. Your alternator is most likely not pulling its weight.
ninety15.0
New Member
- Mar 10, 2004
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i agree with intrcptrstang....if the car was jumped and was running even if it was for 50 ft, i doesnt need the battery to stay running. you might loose your lights or radio or crap like that if the alt/battery are dead, but the car will stil run. another vote for a crappy connection.
crazypete
All my crevices are greased.
Try this one:
Check the circuit breaker module coming off the starter relay + post. It will be about 2-3 inches down from the big clump of modules. It is a small silver box with a nut on top. Hit it hard and see if your car dies. Or if it is dead, hit it and see if it comes back on. I had the same problem and it turned out to be that little module. I cut it out and no problems since.
Just a thought.
Check the circuit breaker module coming off the starter relay + post. It will be about 2-3 inches down from the big clump of modules. It is a small silver box with a nut on top. Hit it hard and see if your car dies. Or if it is dead, hit it and see if it comes back on. I had the same problem and it turned out to be that little module. I cut it out and no problems since.
Just a thought.
I had a similar problem last year now that i think about it, it turned out the one of the wires on the top of the alternator had popped off and the current wasnt getting where it needed to be. I would jump the car, but as soon as i took the cables off, it died. Give that a look, perhaps one of the wires is touching and then coming loose when the car dies.
_jb_
New Member
intrcptrstng said:
I thought only generators (old cars) could run the car without a good battery? Since our cars have computers, is there just enough power from a stock alt. to run the computer? I know they don't draw much power, but I thought something with an alt. needed a decent battery?
93 LX
Founding Member
_JB_ said:
WHAT?!?! Lets see, the engine should be able to run off the alternator. Doesnt the alternator supply enough power to run the electrical and recharge the battery? In my world it does. It sounds like this battery is toast. Pull the battery and take it to autozone or the like. Get a fully charged battery in the car and start the engine then remove the Pos (+) battery cable. The engine dies, bad alternator, the engine runs then your battery is bad. If you have an EFI mustang then the regulator could also be bad but its internal to the alternator.
Good luck!
Allen
ya battery is toast. we did a load test on it, since i had the SAME EXACT problems.. so i got a new battery, yet everynow and then i got the same clicking noise.. still.. so we changed the battery cables, and got a bigger size, so more current could flow.. and the car start better, and faster... or did till the cops made me junk it. lol
_JB_ said:
Auto Electrics 101: Generators will run without a battery. The iron core for the field coils will retain enough magnetism to create the magnetic field required to make electricity.
Alternators like the ones used on Mustangs require a battery to power the rotating field windings. That's because the AC current they generate internally demagnetizes the iron core for the field coils when there is no battery current to power them. There are 3 phases to the alternator’s AC internal circuitry & 6 diodes to rectify the AC current into DC current. The battery acts like a big sink or capacitor to smooth out the remaining pulses
Never disconnect the battery from an alternator. The electrical spike produced before the alternator output drops to zero can damage things like the computer, radio and even the alternator itself.
There are some self exciting alternators, but I have never seen one on a Ford or GM car. The last self exciting alternator I worked on was a 200 amp 110 volt one in a Convair 580 twin turboprop airplane. That was over 30 years ago…
_jb_
New Member
jrichker said:
So the field winderings are basicly an electromagnet. When there is no current from the battery, there is no magnetic resistance to create any energy? Then the stock alternators on our Mustangs can not create an energy to run the car then right?
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