Save me $3,000 or help me push my Bronco over a cliff....

[Viperwolf1]

Red-blue wire is start signal to starter solenoid. Could be some type of starter kill circuit that was added. I would have to see more of what the white wires are going to to tell for sure.

I can't see what's happening in pic 4.

 

[Viperwolf1]

OK, I did the alternator charge wire test and it made no difference....actually I got a few higher readings which went into the 18.4 range. They were all between 15.4 and 18.4

Ideas?

Disconnect battery and ground the voltage regulator directly to the engine. Make sure the A terminal wire (yellow) of the regulator is in good shape and has a good connection to the battery side of the starter solenoid.

 

[Rmally]

I'm not quite sure I know what you mean, my regulator has a harness that clips in....I don't see any ground wires from the regulator. The harness then feeds into the wiring harness.

Sorry if this is a stupid question. Let me know the procedure for grounding.

Thanks,

 

[Rmally]

Here's the picture of the wires from my regulator....do they look ok and in the right position? I noticed block A has two wires going into it.. is that correct.

 

[strokers]

Run another wire from body of the regulator to ground at block or even to battery. If you don't have stuff to make one at house when you go to parts store get a new regulator also.

 

[Viperwolf1]

Here's the picture of the wires from my regulator....do they look ok and in the right position? I noticed block A has two wires going into it.. is that correct.

Everything looks ok. The extra yellow wire should go to a noise eliminating capacitor. If it doesn't you can unplug it.

The mounting screw of the regulator is supposed to have a ground wire attached to it. This wire goes directly to the alternator and is connected to the ring on the rubber block that gets attached to a ground bolt there. It looks like you have something attached to the reg mounting screw but I can't see where it goes.

Are you using the same voltmeter to check battery and ignition voltage? If so keep the same ground point when you do.

 

[Rmally]

Yes, same volt meter and ground point.

I grounded the regulator to the engine and still getting 17.4 to the coil......would adding an after market resistor help at all?

I'm clueless what to do next. I'm Off to my daughters gymnastics tournament so will be out till this evening. If you have any more ideas let me know and I'll try them later tonight.

 

[Viperwolf1]

Yes, same volt meter and ground point.

I grounded the regulator to the engine and still getting 17.4 to the coil......would adding an after market resistor help at all?

I'm clueless what to do next. I'm Off to my daughters gymnastics tournament so will be out till this evening. If you have any more ideas let me know and I'll try them later tonight.

I am at a loss to explain how this is happening. You should be able to add a resistor to drop the voltage back down at the coil though. You would need a 1-2 ohm, 25 watt resistor between the ignition switch and the red connector on the red-green wire.

 

[Ranchtruck]

Which side of the coil are you measuring from, the wire going to the points or the wire coming from the harness? The points side wire will have 20+ volt spikes on it each time the points open, that's what the capacitor/condenser in with the points is meant to be soaking up. When the points cut the circuit you get flyback voltage generated by the magnetism collapsing inside the coil.

Measure the voltage coming too the coil from the harness, not out of the coil to the points.

 

[Rmally]

Which side of the coil are you measuring from, the wire going to the points or the wire coming from the harness? The points side wire will have 20+ volt spikes on it each time the points open, that's what the capacitor/condenser in with the points is meant to be soaking up. When the points cut the circuit you get flyback voltage generated by the magnetism collapsing inside the coil.

Measure the voltage coming too the coil from the harness, not out of the coil to the points.

I'm measuring the + side of the coil with a ground on the negative battery post.

How would I measure from the harness to the coil?

Thanks for the input....just buy it from me and end my pain.

 

[WheelHorse]

The first thing I want you to do is take that crappy looking ground wire off from the battery and throw it away.

I've seen this happen with a negative ground cable which had broken down in the center. (Looking at the black tape on the red ground, looks like vomit to me.) High resistance in the ground circuit caused anything that could provide ground to provide ground...like points, to provide a ground and of course the points can't handle a ground path for the entire vehicle.

Ground goes for the least resistance and if there's high resistance in the cable..only seen under load, then the points are a lot easier to hammer high amps through.

I bought a new ground cable with a pigtail (NAPA), added a 10G wire right to the volt regulator (-) and a 10G wire (-) from the intake manifold to the firewall.

Also, my battery is turned around compared to yours.

That would run you about 20 bucks total to give it a shot.

Also, rotate your positive cables up a bit on the starter solenoid. I can't tell how close they are to arcing out fender.

 

[Ranchtruck]

The coil has 2 connections on the top of it and one plug wire headed to the distributor. One of the two connections is meant to be fed power from the wiring running across the top of the motor (the harness). The other is meant to hook to the points wire going to the distributor.

+ on the coil is meant to be connected to the harness. - is meant to go to the points. However, people can hook them up backwards and it will still run fine but it isn't right.

If you are measuring the voltage on the post connected to the points it will be all over the place as the engine runs and it isn't a meaningful reading. The 20+V your seeing is a wild goose chase because you are probably measuring the wrong connection on the coil. Measure the voltage on the other post of the coil and see if it's a consistent 9ish V dc with the engine running. If it is, switch up the wire connections to the coil so that that one is on the + post and the points wire is on the -.

 

[WheelHorse]

What's the ohm's on the coil's primary side?