So about month or so ago I was driving to a restaurant and I watched my voltage drop to nothing right as I was pulling in. Obviously it wouldn't restart

I was able to get a jump start and was able to get home with no problem

I figured it was the alternator so I replaced it

After alternator install it worked fine with the exception that I would start it and the battery light would be on for maybe 5min of driving then all the sudden the gauge would go up like normal and battery light would go off

Well yesterday I'm driving home from the golf course and it would not charge at all. I pulled in my driveway and the battery was totally dead

I got off work today and removed the alternator and took it back and they tested it good. So then I figured battery most likely shot and bought new one. I installed battery and same thing happened, battery light on for a couple mins then everything started charging as normal?

Is there a relay that could be causing this issue? All my connections are clean and good

TIA

98 4.6

 

http://www.f150online.com/forums/ele...ght-still.html

Check out this post, has a lot of good information.

 

Update to this issue....

I still have yet to figure this out because I have too much other stuff in life going on but it's really starting to bug me now because it's getting worse

So what's happening now is that it will almost never start charging on its own....but here's the weird part

If I put jumper cables on connected to another vehicle and start it, it will start charging immediately and stay like that until it sits over night and then the next morning will not charge again

Does this make sense to anyone?!

 

I wanted to write a conclusion to this thread since not many do that on this forum

As I said I took my new alternator back to the store and they tested it and said it was good and sent me on my way

I have been so frustrated because I thought the alternator was good and I triple checked everything else
I posted on the Porsche forum I'm on and everyone was telling me it had to be a bad alternator

I took it back again and they tested it good again...I demanded it be replaced

Well guess what it works great now!!

 

Thanks for that. I hate it when the OP just never comes back and you don't know what happened.

 

Well, if it does again, 97-2000 are notorious for the fuse holder losing connectivity. That little inline fuse in the alt harness. The fuse remains good, the holder goes bad. You catch it by waiting for the light, you get a light then go right for that holder and move it around. You'll hear the alt kick in and charge. Change the holder, literally a dime a dozen. Or 10 bucks.