My ranger croaked today!

Discussion in 'Electrical' started by Hooligan, Feb 15, 2013.

  1. Hooligan

    Hooligan Rangerholic!!

    Over the winter my ranger has been needing jump starts alot due to lack of use. Today I started it, drove it to my sons school and after a little over an hour, it was dead. I mean, dead like dome light wouldnt even come on. I tried jumping it, it finally started after about 15 minutes of trying to jump it.

    While driving, everything electrical started blinking, cluster lights were going on and off, & the truck was chugging and sounded like it was going to die out. I'm kind of thinking the alternator is shot with everything blinking they way it was.

    Any other insight would be helpful!
     
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  3. rango88

    rango88 Chuck Norris Drove a Ram

    normally doesnt the battery light stay on when the alternator is shot? (just speaking for experience) Could be the Battery is shot from the excess jumping (happened to the Miata) or like you said the Alternator is shot.
     
  4. OP
    Hooligan

    Hooligan Rangerholic!!

    It could be both just from the alternator taking a dump if thats the case. I have to look into it more though
     
  5. djfllmn

    djfllmn ^^^ I am Mr. Clean!

    alternator is shot
     
  6. klinger86

    klinger86 Moderator

    I'd say if you got enough cash go ahead and replace both.
     
  7. OP
    Hooligan

    Hooligan Rangerholic!!

    Yeah I'm thinking the alternator died and just killed the battery with it where both should be replaced
     
  8. adsm08

    adsm08 New Member

    FWIW I almost always recommend a battery when I replace an alternator.
     
  9. Scrambler82

    Scrambler82 Old Guy User

    Minimum would be replace the battery and load test the alternator… !
     
  10. OP
    Hooligan

    Hooligan Rangerholic!!

    Ok....something weird is going on with the truck. I had to try and jump it to move it into the garage today to replace everything. It jumped after a few minutes and ran fine. I figured I would chance a test run, drove it around the block andno issues at all. I pull it in the garage, put the reader on it and no codes. I turned off the truck to read it, when turning on the key, the dinger was going off and sounded a little funky like it was dying out.

    So my question here is......WTF?! The truck starts and runs fine, I am letting it idle for a bit just to see what happens. After the initial jump, It starts fine without hesitating and everything is working right so I just don't get it. Could it be a fluke thing with a loose battery terminal and a weak jump on the day it died? The day it died, driving it home as I said, abs light blinking, all other lights in the cluster flashing and the transmission was slipping, now, it works normal!!
     
  11. OP
    Hooligan

    Hooligan Rangerholic!!

    Found the problem. Battery terminal connectors. They never could get tighten real snug since I bought the truck. Recently I put on an anti corrosion gel on the terminals and it was slippery enough to allow the connections to vibrate loose. Problem solved with new clamps, gold plated, provided by Buggman a few months back, I just never got to put them on.

    Once again, The Buggman has come through for me!!
     
  12. buggman

    buggman Do not touch the trim!

    HA!
    If you had put those suckers on like 2 years ago when I sent 'em to you, you might not have had the trouble today :p
     
  13. OP
    Hooligan

    Hooligan Rangerholic!!


    Yeah lol....I know! Regardless though, I had them and fixed the problem so I am greatful you sent them to me!
     

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